


Separated WAY After Birth

by LitheFider



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brother Feels, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Gen, Human Legos, Humor, No Romance, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Semi-Fantasy Human Legos AU, Unikitty being a bamf, brotherly cuteness, overanalyzing legos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 20:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1616468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LitheFider/pseuds/LitheFider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While trying to preform alchemy, something goes VERY wrong. Good Cop / Bad Cop is split into two physically separate people.  This fic will explore what ensures from this, from hilarity to seriousness, and lots of feels as they deal with their separated state and Unikitty researching how to put them back together.</p><p>(Note: This fic contains no shipping, the relationships are tagged as platonic.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I tagged 'no romantic relationships' but of course Emmet/Lucy are a couple in this, and are prominent as the cop's friends, but their relationship is not a main focus. It's just there.
> 
> I write GCBC like twin brothers who were born in one body, something possible in the semi-fantasy human-lego-verse I have going on in my fics. Due to this special 'counterparts' nature (on top of being twins) they are very close and need one another emotionally, and this seems more apparent when they get physically separated as they do in this fic. Their closeness is NOT romantic or sexual in ANY way between them. Just making that clear! Thanks. :)

"Remind us again why _we_ are here?" Bad Cop asked, "And why we are all holdin' hands?"  
  
  
Wyldstyle sighed and whispered, pulling the cop closer, "The more people Vitruvius has here that knew him in life, the more chances, in theory, that this should work."

  
"Big _IF_. IF it works" Emmet whispered from where he was holding her other hand, "You told me this alchemy voodoo has never really worked for something like this."

  
"Well, not to anyone's _knowledge_."

  
"Shhh!" Unikitty shushed them, stamping a front hoof for emphasis.  She was at the center of the circle of master builders all holding hands, drawing out recipe symbols on the floor with chalk while Vitruvius 's ghosty apparition hovered nearby directing her.  The centaurin princess was the best builder at warping time-space matter so she was working most closely with the deceased wizard builder.  
  
"Okay everyone," Vitruvius spoke, his voice echoing, and his transparent form flickering like a radio station going in and out. "I wanted to thank you for indulging me.  I know alchemy isn't the most stable of things, but as I'd rather not spend eternity as a consciousness stuck between realms of existence, it doesn't hurt to try."  
  
"And what guarantee do we have we won't end up like my little pony over there?" Batman groaned, squeezing at Benny's hand.

Benny's other hand was grasped to Bad Cop, who startled when Benny yelped, "HEY watch the deathgrip Batty!"  
  
  
Princess Unikitty huffed at the masked crusader, "Because you aren't the one directly doing the alchemy. I'm good at space warping building, remember?  I'm basically the barrier between you all and the matter we gathered for this." She gestured to the pile of matter at the center of the circle.  It was all manner of colors like they had plucked materials from all across Legoland.  
  
"So that's really going to make a body?" Benny grimaced, while giving an apologetic look to Bad Cop, who was scowling like trying to cover up the fact he startled like that.  
  
"In theory, yes." Wyldstyle replied from her place in the circle, “A physical body for Vitruvius’s consciousness.”

  
"Hey if this works think you'd wanna try having a biological body again Captain?" Emmet grinned up at the tall figure holding his other hand.  
  
  
Metalbeard had been politely quiet, as Unikitty had requested, but with being asked a direct question he replied, "Nay, I had to go through enough alchemy to get to _this_ point, I'm not sure I want to scuttle about down those rough seas again."

  
Unikitty giggled nervously, remembering indeed all the trouble they went through to build and animate the Captain a whole new body while still keeping his biological core alive.  Metalbeard had made the most of it and retrofitted himself with all manner of weapons and gadgets useful to a sea captain.  It had been a tragedy but with the Princess's help he'd bounced back. They had been close ever since.  
  
  
"Alright," Unikitty put her hands up, "Let’s begin!"  
  
  
The Princess advised everyone to keep all body parts away from the alchemy circle on the floor.  The holding hands part was to help with this too, like ‘all hands inside the car’ kind of thing. They were told to visualize as much of the old Wizard as possible, and direct all their build energy to her and Vitruvius.

  
"I'm not even a builder, this is silly," Bad Cop grumbled under his breath.

  
"You can still help visualize Vitruvius ," Benny whispered to him.

  
"Benny's right," Wyldstyle whispered before shushing them.

 

  
Bad Cop sighed deeply and tried, closing his eyes to aid in the effort. 

  
  
_< Danny, we're tryin’!  Least we are being moral support?>_ His counterpart said optimistically to him from inside their head.

 **  
<I guess so, I mean... I hope this works and all, even if we can't really contribute builder wise.> **Bad Cop replied.

  
_< That's the spirit buddy!>_ Good Cop beamed.  He was skeptical this whole thing would work, but he was hoping in his usual optimistic fashion for a good result.  Also he knew how powerful Unikitty, and all the other Master Builders around them, were. If anyone could do something crazy like this, it was them.

  
**< What is it you say G, 'good karma?'>**

  
_< Heh yea somethin’ like th->_

  
  
"LOOK OUT!"

  
  
Bad Cop had been so engrossed chatting internally with his counterpart that he'd totally zoned out to Unikitty starting the alchemy.  Something had sparked unexpectedly and sent matter flying.  Benny and Wyldstyle, who were paying attention, dodged out of the way quickly.  However, Bad Cop's few second delay of inattention resulted in a glob of glowing, rainbow matter smacking him right in the face, sending him, and his glasses, flying. 

Unikitty had tried calling the matter back, but it all happened so fast. By the time it reacted to her build signature, the glob was already securely attached to Bad Cop, so he was pulled with it like a ragdoll as it snapped back towards her. Unikitty shrieked and everyone else gasped as the glob, and Bad Cop, splashed right into the larger globule of matter at the center of the alchemy circle. His whole body sucked into the blob like he was thrown into a jar of jelly.  
  
  
"Bad Cop!" Emmet yelped.

  
"Oh my goodness!" Unikitty stamped her hooves fretting about wondering what to do, this was highly unexpected!  She put up her hands and her horn glowed as she tried to break the matter apart enough for them to pull him out before he either suffocated or was absorbed into it! The matter baulked, shifting and undulating like an unruly pile of octopuses.  Wyldstyle joined her then soon everyone was directing energy at it trying to break the blob apart.   
  
"Shit, it won't budge!" Batman yelled.  
  
"It's solidifying!" Emmet yelped.  
  
"He's right; I can't warp it at all!" Benny strained, still trying to break apart the matter.  
  
"Wait what?" Unikitty gasped.  Solidifying into WHAT?  She'd not finished the alchemy for Vitruvius!

  
  
Everyone backed up and watched as the matter stilled and cooled.

  
  
Bad Cop appeared, matter dripping off his body as he shakily pushed himself upright.

 

Next to him also groaning and sitting up was…another Bad Cop.

 

Both men fumbled around on the ground for their glasses, going in opposite directions. One found the round pair that had been in Bad Cop’s front pocket earlier, and the other picked up mirrored aviators, both acting like they had found the right pair of glasses.

 

Meanwhile everyone was watching in utter shock and bemusement.

 

“What happened?” Both men moaned, in pretty much unison, as they stood up.

 

They stopped dead as they heard each other's voices. The voice of their counterpart...and it _wasn’t_ coming from inside their head.

 

They turned to finally see one another.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you do things separately if you have lived for 38 years as one being? 
> 
> The cops experience their first day as independent humans.

 “Woah…” Emmet blinked wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him

 

The two men, who were identical physically for all intents and purposes apart from their glasses, stared at each other with utter bewilderment. With the mild exception of their shared dreams, they had never _seen_ one another. They shared a body after all. Two souls in one body. That is, until that very moment.

 

Not concerned about the others staring, all the two cops seemed to care about was making sure this WASN’T a dream. They inched closer to one another, Good Cop putting out a hand and shakily poking Bad Cop in the shoulder, then the chest. It _was_ real! He drew really close to his face, looking at his own reflection in the other’s mirrored aviators. Bad Cop didn’t stop him and stared back, studying Good Cop’s face just as closely.      

“Well, we created a body alright!” Princess Unikitty beamed.

“The _wrong_ body.” Vitruvius groaned.

“You _cloned_ Bad Cop?” Batman held out a hand like saying ‘how is that possible’ and ‘what have you fucking done’ at the same time.

“NO not _cloned_ , you can’t create a _person_ out of matter; it would have no soul, no spark of life, whatever you want to call it. We were trying to create a _body_ for a consciousness to inhabit – just it…got the wrong ‘soul’ in it.” Wyldstyle explained, glancing at Vitruvius’s flicking form.

“We were all visualizing Vitruvius like we were supposed to, but then when Bad Cop got sucked into the matter we all started visualizing _HIM_ , as we all were trying to help him…so we all inadvertently helped build the matter into, well…” Unikitty gestured showing the obvious result. “And the matter took in the nearest consciousness, that being, Good Cop.”

“Geezus,” Emmet smoothed his hair back.

“Heh, now we got a Good Cop AND a Bad Cop…” Benny pointed at each of them, smirking, “Crazy!”

 

The two cops, who were now closely inspecting each other’s hands with fascination, looked up from what they were doing to react to what Unikitty had been explaining.

 

“So you, split us in _two_?” Bad Cop said.

“She must have! I…” Good Cop tried speaking to his counterpart, Danny, in his head like always but –

 

\- there was only silence.

 

“You’re not there!” Good Cop exclaimed, looking at Danny.

“You’re not there either…” he replied, shocked.

 

“This is some trippy shit man,” Benny chuckled, only beginning to imagine what it must feel like for them.

 

“Are you two okay?” Wyldstyle asked with concern, “Like physically, you guys feel okay at least?”

 

“I think so,” Good Cop bit his lip, feeling himself over.

Bad Cop scrutinized him, “You sure?”

“Yea,” He replied, checking his counterpart like he knew he’d worry about him and not himself first.

 

“We should take you to my new cloud cuckoo hospital for a look over, just to be sure. I can scan you with my rainbow matter oscillators.”

 

Batman looked at her like she was crazy, though he _always_ looked at her like that.

 

“Alright,” Both cops replied in unison, looking at each other after as if saying _‘fuck that’s weird.’_

 

“Okay you guys let’s go!” Benny gestured everyone to his spaceship parked on the next hill over.

 

…

 

…

 

“Well you seem normal, as in, no _physical_ problems. Your bodies are identical in every way as well,” Princess Unikitty, who was now sporting thick black glasses and a labcoat on her human upper half, said to the patients sitting on her exam table. Both were down to their boxers and undershirt.

 

“How’s it going?” Emmet said impatiently as he poked his head into the exam room.  Right behind him peeking in were the other master builders, heads blooming like flowers along the stalk of the door frame.

 

“Hey!” Bad Cop exclaimed, tensing up and wishing they’d be respectful of their privacy.

Good Cop chuckled at him, knowing he must be a shy for the others to see him half naked. “Calm down buddy they are only worried,” He patted his leg.

“Shoo shoo!” Unikitty chided them, “We’ll be out shortly!”

“This is so embarrassing,” Bad Cop groaned, not liking any of it one bit. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, momentarily removing his sunglasses. His head hurt, if only because it was so…empty, _quiet_. He looked to Daniel sitting next to him like he wanted to hear his voice more, “ _I’m okay_. I’m okay….”

“It’s strange, I know,” Good Cop replied, seeming to know what he was feeling, “So…quiet, yea? I don’t like it.”

“Yea me neither.” Bad Cop rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.

 

“Oh come’on you two, officers Danny _and_ Daniel, you are independent agents now! You must have wished at some point for something like this? Isn’t sharing a body annoying sometimes?” Unikitty tried to look on the bright side. She was thinking this must be a good thing! They could do whatever they wanted now. They always seemed like such different people to her, and she wondered how they got along sharing a body like they did.

 

“Well, sure we fight _sometimes_ , we’re basically brothers, and all siblings fight occasionally.” Bad Cop said, looking at Good Cop.

“Yea,” Daniel nodded, “But…we always worked things out.”

 

“And I mean maybe at the worst of times we wished we didn’t share a body but - ” Bad Cop started.

“ - we never really ever thought it _seriously_ as it was impossible and - ”

“ – we are, _were_ , content as we were born, yea?” Bad Cop finished.

 

 _‘Okay that’s freaky,’_ Unikitty thought, about how they could finish each other’s sentences like that. She held her breath thinking for a moment then said, “Either way – you two are stuck like this for the foreseeable future. I am not sure if I _can_ reverse it. I mean, I’d need to research it with Vitruvius…do you _want_ me to look into it?” She personally still thought this was a happy accident.

 

The two of them looked at each other, their hands finding one another’s automatically, their expressions showing uncertainty.

 

“Look into it.” Daniel said.

“…yea.” Danny confirmed.

 

“Aright,” Unikitty smiled softly. She’d respect their wishes and indeed, start looking into alchemy to undo it. It was totally new territory.

 

…

 

As the two cops emerged, fully dressed this time, all the others in the waiting room came up eager for information.

 

“This isn’t ‘twenty questions’ time.” Danny held up a hand to the others and got in front of his counterpart.

“They are just worried,” Daniel pouted at him.

“What are you going to do now?” Wyldstyle asked them anyway.

“Take a long nap.” Bad Cop groaned.

“How can you sleep at a time like this?” Good Cop retorted.

“I just want to get out of here,” He tried whispering to Daniel, putting up a hand in an attempt to make it sneakier. Though as he was used to being able to say such things to the other silently inside their head, it wasn’t perfect execution.

 

“I’ll give you a ride down,” Benny chuckled, “I know your cruiser was left down on the ground.”

Bad Cop sighed, but managed a smile to the kind offer.

“That’s kind of you Benny, thanks.” Good Cop thanked him.

“Yea let’s give the boys some privacy yea?” Wyldstyle nodded to everyone.

 

“I’ll be coming by tomorrow to check on you though! I already made arrangements that you'll have the day off, understandably.” Unikitty tapped a pen on her clipboard, trying to look extra scientific. “Expect me around 11:00 am sharp!”

 

“A-alright.” Danny said in a defeated tone. Eleven am _sharp_? That is not early enough to be called ‘sharp’ anything, he thought. He was still getting used to the fact everyone was so nice to him, as everyone had made amends of sorts. It had taken him a while to come to terms with being given forgiveness for things he felt were unforgivable as it was.

 

“Let’s go!” Good Cop grinned like he was eager for another spaceship ride, pointing out the door and leading the way, tugging on Bad Cop’s hand.  

 

…

 

 _Finally_ , finally.

 

The cops were glad for some peace and quiet to mull things over. Social as he was compared to his counterpart, even Daniel needed the respite.

 

Danny made coffee. Daniel hovered nearby, watching him.

 

Then Danny watched as Daniel made hot chocolate. He even added marshmallows.

 

They sat down wordlessly at the table and sipped at their drinks in a strange unison. They studied each other’s body language, mannerisms, how they drank from their cups. It was all very familiar, but…alien in that they were looking in from the outside.

 

“You slouch.” Bad Cop told the other flatly.

“Well you are almost too good postured,” Good Cop smirked at him.

“How is that…sweet?” He gestured with his head towards the other’s hot chocolate.

“This is that semi-sweet fancy imported chocolate you got me at Christmas time.”

“Ahh that one yea.” Danny replied, imagining the flavor in his mind.  

“You only put one shot of crème in that coffee. Bet it’s a little strong.”

“It’s the way I like it.”

 

They stared at each other for a moment, and then slid their cups across the table, taking a sip of each other’s drink. They made faces at the flavor of each like it wasn’t totally agreeable. Then they broke into soft laughing at the whole exchange.

 

“We do have different tastes.” Daniel noted, not like it was a _bad_ thing.

“We do,” the other nodded with a smile.

 

 

They heated up leftovers for dinner. It was takeout Italian food, baked ziti.

“This I know we _both_ like,” Good Cop talked with his mouth half full.

Bad Cop chewed before replying, “Yea.”

Daniel stared at him like imagining what he felt it tasted like. They could always feel what the other was kind of feeling, like a warm background noise when the other was happy, or a cold bitterness when the other was sad.

 

That is, except for now. Now everything they were doing was new and strange as the didn't have the other there to share it with.

 

 

They cleaned up, did the dishes, Daniel washing and Danny drying like a perfect little team. Then they flopped on the couch to watch TV and relax. Good Cop let Bad Cop pick the channel. But after a while of watching Law and Order…Daniel playfully grabbed the remote and switched it to a cooking channel.

“Hey it was in the middle of it!” Bad Cop complained.

“But look, I can do _this_!” Good Cop teased, holding the remote away from him.

“Nnggg!” Danny grasped for it, soon climbing on top of his counterpart.

“EEehehehe!” Daniel giggled, playing keep away.

They had the same arm muscles but Bad Cop overpowered him somehow and grabbed the remote back. He paused considering the situation. “Well this is a whole new way to fight over the TV.”

“Hahaha yea,” Good Cop smiled.

 

They went back to watching Law and Order (Daniel _did_ actually like the show he just had wanted to tease his counterpart). Mid way through Good Cop was leaning on Bad Cop’s shoulder and they had unconsciously clasped hands. By the end, both were a bit sleepy…and half dozed off leaning on one another.

 

They awoke shortly after as the next TV program came on. Danny yawned, stretching, as Daniel fell into his lap trying to use it as a pillow. “Hey come’on we’re not THAT old, too early for bedtime.”

 

“It’s 9’oclock...it’s late enough…” Daniel murmured.

 

Bad Cop paused, one hand with the remote and the other lifting to pet carefully over his sleepy counterpart’s hair. It was so _strange_. Never had he imagined they would be able to do these things in real life. But, it also was kind of…nice. When they curled up on the couch watching movies together this was how it felt, in their head. He couldn’t help but smile as Daniel shifted, settling in with a soft sound.

 

“Hey look, one of your _favorites_ ,” Danny teased in a sarcastic tone. He had switched to a movie channel and it was playing Men in Black.

“Ohh!” The other perked immediately, sitting up.

“This is about when you’d want to make popcorn.” Bad Cop noted.

“I should!” Daniel jumped up and went to run over to the kitchen.

 

But he stopped a few steps away from the couch. He looked back, locking eyes with Danny.

 

They’d not spent a _second_ apart since the incident that morning. They had always been within an arm’s reach of each other.

 

 

A second really apart.  
  
  
Never, _ever_.  
  
  
In their _whole_ life.

 

 

That is...

Except for those traumatic three days for Bad Cop -

\- when Good Cop had been... _silenced._

 

 

“You’re…just going to the kitchen, right?” Bad Cop stated, like he could see the look in the other man's eyes, that he was thinking the same thing. Or at least could see how uneasy he was.

But they both knew if they were going to do this whole being two separate people thing, in case Unikitty couldn't reverse it, they 'd need to start _somewhere_.

“Yea, I’ll, be right here in the kitchen buddy.” Good Cop bit his lip. "I'm not really going anywhere."

“Just…call if you...need me?” Danny stated, feeling silly the moment after _. ‘He’s just going to pop some popcorn, geezus...’_

Daniel nodded, walking slowly to the kitchen archway. One foot in the kitchen, still glancing back at Danny, who didn’t take his eyes off him.

 

 

Other foot, going…going…

Pantry, just going to the pantry.

Yea.

_You’re okay._

_Peachy keen,_ Good Cop told himself, holding his breath for a moment.

 

 

Bad Cop watched as Daniel vanished past the boundary of the door.

 

Things seemed to fuzz on the edges of his vision.

Thirty seconds ticked by.

 

Alone.

 

One minute ticked by.

 

You’re –

 

_Alone._

 

_Good Cop is gone  he's  g o n e._

" _Daniel_?!" Bad cop suddenly panicked.

 

Daniel had just got the air popper from the pantry and nearly dropped the bag of kernels he was pouring when he heard that tone in his counterpart's voice. He practically threw the bag on the table and ran to the kitchen archway. Danny was stumbling there to meet him, gasping for breath.

 

Both their hearts were racing, one mid panic attack and the other freaking out with worry.

 

"Danny, I'm right here, it's okay!" Good Cop took his brother's hand, "I'm not goin' anywhere. This isn't..isn't like before." He knew exactly what the other must have been thinking.

 

Bad Cop looked down with embarrassment as he caught his breath and tried to calm himself down, but his breathing was strangled. "I - I know I - " He choked out, "I couldn't...couldn't help it - "

 

"You're having a panic attack buddy sit down," Good Cop was keeping it pretty together for his counterpart's sake, but he too had felt dizzy upon leaving him. He eased him into a kitchen chair. He got him a glass of water with a straw.  
  
_Breathe breathe dammit._ His chest was so tight.

_Daniel is right there, his hand is on your shoulder._

_He's okay he's okay you're okay dammit.  You're not alone._

Bad Cop sipped the water, feeling his chest loosen as he watched Good Cop turn on the popcorn popper. The sound of the kernels warming and rotating, then increasing in volume as they started to pop and out the top into a waiting bowl. They smelled like home, warm and familiar.

 

Daniel massaged his hands on the other's shoulders, gauging his state of being. "Buddy I..I know what you must have been thinking of..."

"I'm sure you can." Bad Cop seemed to be able to breathe better now.

"I...I was pretty much asleep, like in a comma. But you, you were - _alone_."

"Yea you...you do seem to be doing better with this whole situation better then me, cause you have never experienced _it_ before, not like - not like I did."  _I didn't know if you were dead or not, I didn't know if you were ever coming back..._

"I know, and I'm sorry." Good Cop lowered his eyes.

"You got _nothin'_ to be sorry for, ye hear?" Bad Cop whirled around to look at him, "I am just glad that you came back okay."

"But remember all those weeks after I woke up when I talked funny and couldn't walk?"

"DO I." Danny grumbled, "I was worried _sick_."

 

"Oh Buddy." Daniel laughed, trying to lighten the mood. He leaned over and kissed his counterpart on the top of his head. He was gruff and tough but Daniel knew exactly how much he could hurt, and that he needed some kindness when no one was looking.

 

Danny relaxed further and managed a smile in return. "I'll get used to this, maybe. It just will be harder for me then you."

 

"Don't think this is a piece o' cake for me either you know!" Daniel struck back, turning off the popcorn popper as it had finished all the kernels. He felt so guilty this was so much harder on his counterpart.  He knows it was Business's fault but he still feels terrible he left Danny all alone.  The whole ordeal left both of them scarred in more ways then one.  
  
"Now speaking of us takin' baby steps, you think you can go out to the couch alone - or you not ready for that again?"

 

Bad Cop stood up with resolve like he was not a baby and damn well could.

 

Still holding the water with the colorful bendy straw, which was comforting as he knew Good Cop had got it for him, he turned and walked out to the living room, not looking back, and sat down on his side of the couch. He ran his fingers over the spot where Daniel was sitting earlier. The spot was still warm.

 

“Hey buddy you okay?” Daniel poked his head into the living room like checking on Danny even though he’d only been gone all of 10 seconds.

Bad Cop grinned awkwardly at his counterpart, “I'm...okay. You?"

“I’m fine! Fine…” He grinned just as awkwardly like it was not really all okay but was okay _enough_.

There was an uneasy silence as Good Cop’s head vanished back into the kitchen.

Danny fidgeted his fingers together in his lap as he heard Daniel melting some butter, cleaning up, and getting himself a drink.

He practically jumped as Good Cop came in with a bowl of hot popcorn, darting over and plunking down next to him.

 

They both felt an immediate relief as they were butted up against one another again.

 

Daniel put the popcorn bowl in Danny’s lap and they settled in to watch the silly old sci-fi comedy, which they had seen many times so it was no big deal it was 1/3 of the way in already. Without even thinking about it or looking they randomly fed each other popcorn instead of to their own mouths. The bowl was put aside as they emptied it and they were back to using each other as a leaning post with clasped hands.

This time they really did fall asleep as the movie wore on.

When they awoke it was 2am and the channel was playing some horrible rom-com from the 90’s.

When they did this usually (it was not an uncommon occurrence for them to fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV), Bad Cop would be the one to drag Good Cop off to the real bed.

This was no different; Bad Cop picked up his sleepy counterpart in his arms and went off to their bedroom. He considered the bed a moment. No way he'd leave Good Cop there alone and sleep on the couch, so they'd need to both fit onto the twin size bed. Well, it was a decent sized twin, but not meant for two grown men like themselves.

He carefully placed Daniel, who was still fast asleep, on the bed. He tossed off his own pants and shirt, and then slipped off the other’s shirt. He _attempted_ to get off his counterpart’s pants but gave up as he was _too darn asleep_. So he just slipped off his round glasses and put them on the nightstand next to his own sunglasses, then scooted in behind him sleepily, sharing the single pillow, and spooning his body around the other to fit on the mattress.  
  
  
Bad Cop forgot for a moment they were two separate beings as he closed his eyes, the sheet connecting them was warm and soft and hearing the other's breathing sounded like his own breathing.  It helped lull him to sleep.

 

…

 

Morning came, their alarm clock going off at the usual 7:30 am time.

Danny smacked it off then was asleep almost instantly again with a groan.

Daniel yawned awake with a small stretch and a sigh. Had the bed not been right up against the wall he might have fallen out. He blinked at the sunlight, then down at who his arms were entangled around. During the night they had switched somehow and now Good Cop was the big spoon, with Bad Cop curled in a ball in his arms.

“Good morning buddy!” Good Cop greeted Danny with his usual morning enthusiasm.

“HHGggnnn,” he moaned, stealing the pillow and putting it over his head.  
  
Good Cop cuddled back onto him and thought for a moment, “I don’t remember my dream at all, how about you?” It was a usual morning routine to recall their shared dream and talk about it briefly – only this time they didn’t _share_ one of course.

“Don’t remember either.” The pillow replied sleepily, voice husky.

“We don’t always remember, that’s okay.” Good Cop replied, biting his lip. Though it wasn’t that he didn’t remember, it was like he didn’t dream at _all_.

“Mmmhumm,” Danny hummed, putting the pillow back under his head. He was feeling very warm and comfortable with how they were arranged right then. He didn’t much care to move. Thank goodness they were able to get the day off with what happened. They actually could have a day off like that now that they didn’t work for Lord Business anymore.

Daniel hummed too, awake but also cozy. “You comfortable? We _just_ fit on here like this.”

“You are so warm,” Danny murmured in a low tone.

Daniel smiled and snaked his arm under the crook of his counterpart’s waist, hugging onto him and putting his face into the back of his askew undershirt. So this is what they looked like from the back? He absently studied Danny’s shoulder blades and muscles.

“I couldn’t get your pants off last night,” Danny muttered. “You were heavy dead weight and fast asleep like a rock.”

“Ohh,” Daniel nervously laughed, indeed noticing he still had pants on. They usually slept in their boxers and undershirt, like Danny was at that moment, and it was usually Danny who was most awake at night to get them ready for bed. “Oopsy.”

Danny simply grunted like it was no big matter anyway.

 

They laid for a while in silence.

 

Danny fell back asleep while Daniel sat awake contemplating the other’s breathing. He eventually papped at his shoulder, rousing him.

“HHggnnn?” Danny blinked.

“You…going to get up or what buddy?”

“I…I’m working on it.” He muttered, “You can…get up you know. Mr. morning person. You, have the option now.” He, on one hand, liked the idea of sleeping more and his other half having the option to get up if he so choose, but also he talked like he didn’t much like the idea of being left alone again.  
  
Good Cop also did not want to leave him, but he decided to try.  
  
He climbed over his counterpart and got his feet on the floor. He stretched his arms up and cracked his back, then put on his round glasses. "Mmmmm," He voiced as he plunked down on his knees to get up in Danny's face like trying to coax him up again. He poked at his nose and played with his hair, pestering him.

Bad Cop opened his eyes a sliver and took the 'abuse' gracefully. He grumbled but it was obviously playful, and tried to pap the other's hand away.

This was not unlike their normal morning routine, just now Good Cop could physically pester his counterpart.

"We should get ready for Unikitty." Daniel said.

"We have like three _hours_." Danny groaned.  

"You'll just sleep if I leave. It's my job to do the morning stuff..."

 

That was true, Danny was used to half sleeping in his corner of their mind as Daniel did things like making breakfast and stretching.  Then Danny would have his coffee and do his morning workout routine as Good Cop 'rested'. Bad Cop did not quite know what to do now, being they couldn't really do that?

 

"You could...make me some coffee." Danny muttered as a suggestion.

"You're not going to -"

"I'll try not to have a panic attack. Just - _talk_ to me okay."

"Alright." Daniel bit his lip and jumped up. He had a job now.

 

Good Cop was soon in the kitchen and idly calling to Bad Cop as he set a pot of coffee on, giving small talk about the nice looking day outside or what he thought Unikitty might have in store for them.  
  
Hearing his voice helped and it was easier that time. Bad Cop only felt pangs of uneasiness, but not an outright panic attack. He rolled over and finally got to sitting on the side of the bed.

 

Daniel came in with a cup of coffee. He'd made tea for himself. "Hey buddy, you okay?"

"Yea," Danny licked his lips, putting on his sunglasses. He relaxed instantly when Good Cop was in the room again.

"Made it how you like it." He handed the sleepy cop the cup.

"Thanks," Danny smiled, seeming quite content as Good Cop sat next to him.

This made Daniel beam even brighter than his usual smiling face. He liked it when Danny would _really_ smile.

 

Yea, they'd get through this.

 

Together.

 

They always did.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was so fun to write, sorry about all the angst. <3 I love the idea of them being casually, comfortingly touchy with one another like they are trying to get back into each other's space much as possible. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cops learn there might be a few advantages to being apart for now, teaching each other things better! They still urge Unikitty to look for a way to reverse it though.
> 
> Unikitty does a few more tests and finds a new resolve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This kinda ran away with me more then I originally thought hahaa, so I figured I'd break it up into smaller chapters so there wasn't one huge middle chapter, and so you guys could have some quicker updates. :)

Breakfast was Good Cop's _favorite_ time of the day.

 

When they were not in a rush, he relished getting to make a hot breakfast at home. Bad Cop may be okay with cereal or coffee, but not Good Cop. And today, not only did he have time, but he got to make breakfast _with_ his counterpart.

 

"You are a lot better at this." Danny seemed unsure as he was handed the spatula. "That is why you always make breakfast."

"But right now I can teach you _easier_ ," Daniel beamed, "I'm going to take advantage of this while I can."

Danny was still not convinced this was a good idea, but he didn't mind indulging his counterpart.

 

A few lopsided pancakes later and he was feeling only _slightly_ more assured about his technique. "You were better at his even when your hands were all shaky..."

 

"It's all in the wrist." The other motioned, demonstrating and putting his hands over Bad Cop's this time to do it with him.

"Mmm humm easy for you to say. Later, I'm teachin' ye better aiming on the firing range, how about them apples?"

"OH no, that is actually a _great_ idea!" Daniel perked. He was nervous, but he loved the idea of Danny teaching him expert laser pistol technique while he could physically hold his hands and show him how. He was a trained cop too, but he was not _as good_ at using a gun as Danny was. Danny was a darn natural.

Bad Cop smiled with approval at his response, then flipped another pancake on his own this time. He gestured to it triumphantly. It was fully flipped and not ripped or burnt.

"Ahhh wonderful buddy!" Good Cop clapped.

 

Soon there was an actually recognizable stack of pancakes on a plate.

 

"The student has become the master." Danny chuckled lowly, smug with pride at his new skill.

Daniel brought over orange juice and utensils. "NOT yet. But, you pass the pancake flippin' class." He punched him playfully in the arm.

"Alright let's eat so we have enough time to get ready, you know I like to be prompt."

 

 

...

 

 

"Oh." Bad Cop said flatly as the two cops found themselves standing in the shower tub.

 

"OH, right." Good Cop laughed, he'd not thought about it either - they undressed and got in so automatically. They'd taken every shower of their lives 'together' of course. Daniel did not find anything awkward about it, they were still one person, closer then even brothers, and his counterpart thought the same.

But he also knew Bad Cop was more reserved then he was with physical things involving others, and with how they were right then maybe it would not be in his comfort zone. "This is no problem for _me_ , is it for you?"

"No, it's not." Danny replied calmly, not feeling the least bit uncomfortable, and his tone showed it, perhaps some shock that it WAS no issue. "You are not _other_ _people_ Daniel, even though we are physically separated right now." He made note looking around that the shower was also plenty roomy for the two of them, so no problem with that either. "It is also more efficient this way."

Good Cop smiled, nodding in agreement, before turning on the water.

Bad Cop flinched as he was the one standing right under the shower when it came on, and Good Cop had not let it warm up before sending it to the nozzle. "GAAhhh!" He yelped.

"Oopsy! Sorry buddy," Daniel chuckled, shying away from the cold water as it warmed up gradually. He had totally done it on purpose.

Danny growled, the grumpy effect fully realized as his wet hair slicked down over his forehead. "Ye did that on purpose!"

Good Cop put on an innocent face as he picked up the soap. His face lit up then like he got a realization. "HEY, this means," He motioned for Danny to turn around.

Danny complied not really knowing what the other meant, but he relaxed as soon as he felt his counterpart's hands on his upper back. "Ohh..."

"When was the last time someone washed our back?" Good Cop chimed.

"Never?" Danny replied, relaxing even more as Daniel rubbed at his neck. Man, that felt _wonderful_. He groaned happily. He repaid the favor soon as Good Cop was finished.

 

They lost track of time and spent a lot longer in there then intended, and only some of that time was wasted with them trying to see who could sing 'my favorite things' better (the rest was wasted splashing water at each other and fighting over the water temperature) so when they were out and drying off Good Cop gasped when he saw the clock. "It's 11:50!"

 

"What!?"

"Oopsy! We must have lost track of time..."

"Darn it!" Danny grumbled and they both dashed off to get dressed.

 

They were just finishing up as there was a knock at the door.

 

"Coming!" Good Cop called out. They were currently buttoning up each other's shirts. They just left them half buttoned and ran over to let her in.

"Hello?" Unikitty opened the door as it was unlocked, peeking her head in. It was amusing to see her in normal doorways as she was almost too tall for them.

"Alright, yea, just walk right in." Danny muttered as he was halfway there.

 

"Told you I'd be on time!" She smiled, closing the door behind her with a back paw, "Oh wow is this your apartment? It's pretty roomy!" She trotted into the living room and felt at the soft carpet there with her hooves and paws. "Lord Business paid you guys well I assume?"

 

"Umm...yea, well enough considering." Bad cop replied flatly. He very much didn't care to talk about Lord Business if he didn't have to, much as the guy was all 'reformed' and stuff now.

Princess Unikitty's bulk still did not maneuver well in the apartment, and she nearly kicked over a houseplant as she turned around to face them. "You two doing okay?"

"Yes doing okay, thank ye." Daniel said from his position next to Danny, looking cheery and neatly dressed. He'd finished buttoning his shirt.

Bad Cop took note and flustered for a second as he quickly fixed his own attire up, he hated to look unkempt.

"No weird, physical _anomalies_?" She took out a clipboard, that kind of appeared out of nowhere in a poof of glittery matter.

"None that I can think of," Bad Cop looked to his counterpart.

"None," He confirmed, "I feel fine."

"Really quite extraordinary, that we could create such a perfect body out of pure matter! Though I do wonder which of you is in the _original_ body. That is why I must take you back to my cloud hospital for, we have to do more tests!"

"OH...joy." Danny slumped, "I thought you were just checking in on us."

"She is just trying to help," Daniel tried to reassure his other half.

"They got us into this mess they damn well better get us out of it," He whispered.

 

"Ohhh are those pancakes??" Unikitty was suddenly in the kitchen and seeing some of the stack of pancakes the two cops couldn't finish from earlier.

 

"OH yea Danny made them!" Good Cop beamed and ran over to her and explained about what they had been up to.

"Bad Cop, _you_ , really?" She chuckled, looking at him.

Danny sheepishly grinned from where he was, "Ahh, yea."

"Don't be shy Buddy," Daniel coaxed him.

"You...want them?" Danny asked, a little unsure as they were all lopsided and mostly the ones he had made first and messed up on. Least they were not the burnt ones, they threw _those_ out.

Daniel gave Unikitty a plate and she happily devoured the leftovers for them. "Ahhh I love fresh pancakes!" She shot out bits of sparkly matter as she exclaimed so. "These are pretty good!"

Both of the cops dusted off the 'glitter', though Danny was a lot more grumpy about it.

"Thanks! I like to put chopped oats in the mix, makes it richer. I also use two eggs." Good Cop noted.

"So - are we going back right now?" Danny asked like he didn't really want to go back to her lab.

"Yes yes, let's get going! I have a rainbow spaceship outside. Benny helped design it for me, what a dear. Least it gives me my own mode of transport."

"Of course it's _rainbow_ , what else would it be?" Bad Cop laughed through a grunt.

"Come'on buddy be nice," Good Cop pushed him to the door, then whispered to him, "She is our only chance at _fixing_ this you know, we should do everything we can that she asks."

 

"I know," Danny replied, sighing softly. One could only hope.

 

...

...

 

"What even is this -"

 

"Don't move!!" Princess Unikitty yelped, putting up a hand at the two cops in her overly colorful laboratory, "You will mess up the scan!"

 

Bad Cop shut up and went back to being still and straight-backed as possible. Good Cop was right by his side, each of them standing up (thankfully not half naked this time) in a strange scanning device that was rotating around them in flashy rainbow colors.

 

 **< What even is this Rainbow-y thing? I bet she made it up. >** Danny thought in his mind, really meaning to say it to Daniel like he always would.

 

However he felt his heart sink with that 'oh right' moment when he remembered, he wasn't in _there_. He was next to him.

 

So he stood in silence as Unikitty finished up.

 

"AH good we got a clean reading that time." She bounced, "Bad Cop it seems you are in the original body, though I was suspecting that as you were who I figured was in control at the time of the accident."

"Oh?" Danny tensed a little, feeling over himself like he was suddenly really aware of his own skin. He looked at Daniel, who also was feeling at himself.

"But I don't feel any different?" Daniel said, getting a jolt of anxiety about what Unikitty was talking about.

"That is because the body we created was such a perfect replica. And thankfully everything seems very stable. So don't worry you are okay."

Daniel felt a hand grasp his own, and his counterpart was right there, looking strong and assuring. Daniel smiled, "I'm not going anywhere don't worry."

"Better not, I got laser gun lessons to give ye." He smirked, eyes crinkling behind his sunglasses.

Daniel smacked his arm and laughed as if saying _'you're incorrigible_!'

...

The Princess finally let them out of her rainbow 'dungeon'.

 

"Now you ARE working on looking into this - " Danny stressed as they were getting into her rainbow transport to head back to the ground.

"Yes yes, top priority. Again I can't give any kind of timeline on it, so you both better start getting cozy for now it might be a while." She poofed away her clipboard.

Daniel shook glitter off himself which just resulted in more of it getting on Danny. He gave him an apologetic look. "Thank you Princess." He thanked the centaurian master builder.

 

She smiled to them, but as she was firing up her rainbow boosters and looked to her front console, her face fell a bit. She really hoped she _could_ fix it. After looking at the new data she got, she knew she was in for some intensive reverse-alchemy. No body was really designed to hold two souls, least in alchemy terms. Good Cop / Bad Cop was a unique case. She was hoping that could work with her to get Good Cop back in there where he was before, without doing irreparable damage to either of them...it would not be easy.  
  
She looked back at the two cops strapped into their seat, butted right up next to one another. They were busy discussing their afternoon plans, Bad cop promising croissants to Good Cop if he did well on the firing range. Good Cop lit up and hugged him. Unikitty had never seen Bad Cop so open to a hug like that. And how he looked at the other like a protective brother.  They were just so at ease with each other.  Yes, she had thought how this would be good at first but they had spent their whole _life_ doing _everything_ together.  This was not the actions of two two people who had been _fighting_ over a body, or, felt cursed in the fact they had to share one.  If that was true they would have run off to do things alone right after the accident. 

But they worked together, in this crazy synchronized mutual harmony.  Depending on one another.  They really were _inseparable_.

 

She put on a determined face for herself. If she could create a whole floating cloud city she could damn well do this! She swore she would fix this, she'd warp time and space if she had to!

 

...

 

Safely back on the ground, the cops drove out to the precinct's indoor firing range. Now that they actually had a human police force they were in charge of, there was more than just Good Cop / Bad Cop using the place.

 

The three other officers who happened to be there when they walked in stopped what they were doing and stared like they were hallucinating.

Were they seeing double?

One officer dropped his gun, jaw agape.

"Hey, don't lose your focus that easily!" Bad Cop barked at him.

The officer scrambled to pick up his gun, not taking his eyes off his chief - chiefs?

"Heh I know this is a shock," Good Cop put up his hands in a calming gesture.

"S-sir?...err...Sirs?" A female officer squeaked, "Is that really you?"

"There was an.... _accident_." Danny began.

"Long story short, we are in two separate bodies _for the time being_." Daniel grinned nervously. "We're okay though."

"Everything going alright today officer?" Danny asked her, always thinking of the safety of all those under him. Stern as he was, he was a great leader, especially now that he was able to actually lead a team of humans.

 

"Y-yes sir." She nodded. "No problems to report." The other two officers both nodded as well, they had recomposed themselves for the most part. The visual shock still had not gone away though. It was surreal to see them both standing there _at the same time_. They had gotten so used to seeing the chief easily switching between glasses, voice and mannerisms changing too. It was really quite incredible to them how each of the men read as such different people despite being in the exact same body.

 

"Good." Daniel and Danny both said in unison.

The other officers followed them with their head as the two cops took a bay for themselves.

"We must have gave them quite a scare," Good Cop whispered with jest.

Bad Cop was clipping a fresh target paper up and sent it to the wall, "Ah we must have...they better not think this means it's any time to fool around."

"Oh I doubt that, we got some great deputies. Really nice to see the people protecting the people now."

"Yea," Danny smiled, he definitely agreed with that.

 

...

 

"You have to really focus down the sight, and not flinch just before you fire." Danny said as they were on their third target paper. "I mean I know these things from watching you. I think you just got lazy as you always let me do _all_ the chasing work in recent years." He was leaned around his counterpart like trying to look down the sight with him, adjusting his arm and posture with his hands.

 

"Yea, I kind of did," Good Cop admitted, squinting a little as he tried to hold himself like Danny was showing him. He let off a round and managed to actually hit the chest area a few times. The laser pistols they used could be set to stun or deadly, they were mostly using stun nowadays. Hitting the chest area would result in the best stun effect.

 

"Not bad!" Danny grinned, "Now let's see if you can do it without me fixing your posture."

Daniel beamed, happy he was getting better.

For the next set, Danny made him go from his back facing the target to turning around and aiming fast as he could before firing. It was all coming back to him, and he was getting better than he ever was before during the rest of the hour they were there.  Danny was in his element and Daniel got into a groove seeing him doing something he knew he was so good at.  This was especially so as he watched him demonstrate for him, so expertly and confidently hitting the target right on mark, even when coming from a blind shot.  For the first time Daniel really could see from the outside how it looked, because he knew how it felt on the inside, the feeling he got from his counterpart...but now it was a whole new perspective.  And it empowered him.

 

...

 

"I'm impressed! I think that was some of your best form ever!" Danny was glowing with pride as they strode through the precinct. "How about that job well done reward I promised - "

 

"Croissants?!" Daniel lit up.

 

"You better believe it."

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's day two and back to work for the cops. They find more ways it is useful to be two separate people while on patrol. Maybe they CAN do this...?

Because of the events of the day before at the firing range, at least the whole precinct had already caught wind of the chief’s accident, and didn’t automatically think someone spiked the office coffee.  


"You’ll report to us just the same as always," Daniel smiled as they addressed the men and women in their station, having just explained how this all happened.

"And we’ll always be on duty together - so you will still have either of us at the other end of the radio." Danny barked. "And no funny business!  I see you smirking over there cadet!"  He pointed.

The young officer immediately bit back his amazed smile. 

"So it really wasn’t _the Duplos_?” A female officer spoke up in a hushed whisper, like a lot of people were thinking it.

"Duplos is only know to affect Kragled matter an you know it, it has never been shown to duplicate people.  This was purely an alchemy accident, as we stated…" Bad Cop replied, figuring that would come up.

"Don’t spread false rumors." Good Cop tsked, "We don’t need mass panic on something like that."

She nodded and everyone mumbled understanding.

"Okay back to work!" Danny called after them.  


…  


"I think I am most amused at how they are unsure whether to call us _'chief's'_ or just the usual ‘ _chief_ ' now, haha,” Good Cop smirked as he picked up an extra laser sidearm and holster from ammunitions, being they only had one of course.    


"Just ‘chief’ is fine really." Bad Cop huffed, as they were _both_ the chief of police still. "Or ‘sir’."

"They will figure it out.  It’s only temporary anyway." Daniel said off hand, twirling their car keys in one finger as they walked side by side.  He drew in a breath sharply afterward, like realizing the weight of the words.

"Yea, only temporary," Bad Cop confirmed, like the very idea this could not be fixed was unthinkable…

They stopped outside their heavily armored patrol car. "Well! The big question is, who gets to drive?" Daniel sing-songed with a clap together of his hands, trying to lighten the heavy mood he accidentally created.

Danny grunted in a short laugh like that indeed was a question for the ages at that moment.  


"Coin flip?" Daniel offered.  


Danny dug into his pocket and procured a quarter.  They would occasionally flip on things they could absolutely not decide or agree on.  Driving was not usually one of them, as they could switch on the fly easily during it before that very week.

Daniel called tails, and won the coin toss.

"Shotgun for youuu," Good Cop teased, pointing to the passenger seat.

"Wow we’re actually usin’ the passenger seat for somethin’ besides boxes of doughnuts." Danny muttered with a smirk.  


…  


They went out on patrol like always, looking for trouble and calls from the deputies for orders or backup.   
  
  
Suddenly, just 30 minutes into driving around, they saw cars screeching out of the way at the other end of the main boulevard they were on.  On the cross street about 4 blocks up they watched as a blob of shifting matter rolled by, followed by a patrol car.

Like on cue, the radio sparked to life with a frantic voice of officer Fredricks, “I NEED BACKUP I REPEAT I NEED BACKUP!  Rogue mobile Duplos, class 2, on Denmark Ave going west!”

 _'The Duplos'_ was the slang term given to a very particular reaction of matter that Lord Business had sprayed with Kragle on _'Taco Tuesday'._ As the agent broke down over time, the matter was unlocked and was able to be rebuilt again.  However, as the agent was…well…not exactly long term lab tested - sometimes it would react in strange ways and _duplicate_ matter.  The duplicate matter would corrupt other matter it came in contact with, and eventually become a blob of indiscernible hot matter. Even more strange…it sometimes even came ‘alive’ and could cause real damage -

\- like the car sized blob rolling through center Bricksburg right now.

Bad Cop warmed up the power cel on his laser pistol and took the safety off, putting on his game face. 

"You know I never thought I’d hear myself say this but -  **I’ll shoot, you drive**!” 

Good Cop was the better driver of them actually, and not just ‘better’ as in ‘safer’.  He hit the sirens and wove through traffic expertly at a swift (but safety conscious) speed.  They soon had caught up to Fredricks’ patrol car. 

"We’re right behind you officer, you all alone in there?" Daniel spoke into the radio.

"Cheif!" The woman officer sounded happy to hear his voice, "Yea and I’m not a builder…and I can’t shoot and drive well."  She squeaked, gasping as the blob changed direction and rolled right onto the freeway on-ramp.

"We called Master Builder backup but still, get outta the way I’m gonna take it out NOW." Bad Cop barked over the crackle of her radio.

Even when in one body, Bad Cop WAS pretty good at driving _and_ shooting out the window.  But at that moment he had full control over aiming and had no doubt in his mind he could take that thing out before it hurt someone, especially as it was approaching the crowded freeway.

The Duplos blob left torn up roadway in its wake, picking up a paper-thin layer of the ground as it rolled along at a little over 35 MPH, a speed that while fast in center city, would increase as it hit the expanse of the freeway.

Fredricks fell back to let the chief through.  Daniel held the car steady as Danny aimed, gun set to full power. Cars around them on the freeway tried to slow down behind them and get the hell out of the way if they were in front. 

He fired five shots and four of them hit; more than needed. 

The blob glowed, darkened, and then shivered as it rolled to a stop, smashing into the concrete median.  It hissed and sizzled, melting like a charred marshmallow where it stopped.

Both cop cars screeched to a halt around it to make sure passing cars would see the blockage with their flashing lights marking the spot.  A traffic jam formed of course, but thankfully no one had been hurt this time.  Soon a Master Builder cleanup crew would arrive to safely dispose of the rogue matter, they would stay in the meantime to direct traffic.   


Danny and Daniel stepped out of their car, glowing with the thrill of success and looking very pleased with themselves.   
  
They gave each other a hearty high five.   


"Nice shootin’ buddy!"

"Nice drivin’ yerself."  
  
  
Yea...good.  This felt...good.  A nice change from all the anxiety they were feeling over the whole situation.  
  
Maybe they _could_ do this?  


…  


Later on a quick lunch break, Larry the barista was staring at the cops as they waltzed in for coffee and pastries. He was used to the cops by now but – not like this.

“Two croissants today Larry, if you please.” Good Cop leaned on the counter.

“Better make it a double espresso too…” Bad Cop added on his order, “I could use the extra caffeine.”

“I…umm…yea sure.” He turned around slowly not taking his wide eyes off them both.  


…  


“He is makin’ more money off us for the time being,” Daniel noted as he carried their doggy bag with croissants for him and some old-fashioned, lightly sugared cake doughnuts for his partner, “As we do have to feed two bodies now.”

“True. So much for our balanced food bills.” Danny replied as he put their drinks in the cup holders of their patrol car – coffee and iced tea. Though I was not uncommon for them to buy things they each respectively liked, now they just had to get larger portions of it.  


“Speaking of food…” that made him think of home cooking, “We have not told Ma and Pa yet.”  


“Soon…soon.” Danny waved a hand as he took the driver’s seat this time. “I think we ought to work ourselves out first.”

“Agreed.” Daniel lit up though then, talking happily, “Though just _imagine_! We can hug them each _at_ _the same time_! We need to do that first thing. Come’on buddy you gotta admit that will make them so happy!”

He could not help but smile at that image in his mind. “No you’re right; I think it will be really nice.”

Daniel knew that smile and tone, though subdued from his own, was his counterpart being very happy at the thought, so he smiled wider and got out the baked goods with glee.

“Okay – all units this is Officer Danny, _and_ Daniel, we are back on duty.” Bad Cop spoke into their radio before they set off on patrol again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fun little interlude before the next longer chapter which will involve Emmet and Wyldstyle....and them prodding them cops to actually try and spend some time apart.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cops are prodded by Emmet and Wyldstyle to try spending real time apart at the mall. 
> 
> They get more then they bargained for.

It took five whole days since the incident for Emmet and Wyldstyle to convince the cops to go shopping at the mall...

 

…separately.

 

"Are you sure about this?" Bad cop whispered to his counterpart, watching the two master builders plotting.

 

They all stood just inside the mall entrance. The place was HUGE, Bricksburg spared no expense on fixing it up into the biggest shopping extravaganza you can imagine master builders to build, and it had already been pretty large _to begin with_ under Lord Business's rule.  

 

"You are havin' second thoughts?" Daniel replied with concern.

"I...no...I mean..." Danny sighed.  
  
He was worried he'd create a scene. What if he had another panic attack? He didn't want people to see him like that. The two of them had been attached at the hip the past five days, but they had become alright enough to go in and out of rooms separately at home or at the station, but it was never for more than a few minutes at a time…and they could always least talk to each other like that.

"I won't do this if you aren't okay with it. I'm not _100%_ comfortable with it either you know." Daniel replied.

"I know they have been buggin' us about this…but I don't think they quite understand how big a deal it is to us. To them it's like pushin' someone to take the plunge on trying a new food or something. It's not that _easy_."

 

"What are you two whispering about?" Emmet smiled and poked in closer. He'd been planning with Wyldstyle on where they might go to make sure they actually stay apart for a period of time while staying within the mall.

"Look - you can't rush this." Danny said forthrightly, putting on his best frowny face.

"We're not rushing...!" Emmet held up his hands.

"We both have cel phones," Wyldstyle held up her cel, "If either if you want to abort we can just call each other, okay? We won't be more than like five minutes away from each other."

 

Knowing that did relax the cops a bit, but still...

Daniel pat his counterpart on the shoulder. He had butterflies in his stomach, but looked willing to step outside his comfort zone for the experiment.

If he had _butterflies_ , Danny's stomach felt like it had a damn flock of birds flapping about in it.

 

"OKAY," Emmet clapped his hands together cheerily like it was now or never time, "You guys going to take the plunge or - ?"

"Who is going with whom?" Bad Cop asked, brow scrunching over his sunglasses.

Emmet and Wyldstyle looked at each other for a second.

"Bad Cop I'm with you." Wyldstyle stated flatly like it was obvious.

"Alrightt buddy shopping trip!" Emmet beamed and bounced over to Good Cop.

Good Cop was perked by the construction worker’s enthusiasm, feeling a little more at ease then a moment ago. Emmet seemed really nice and he was interested to get to spend some time with him.

 

Danny gave the punk young woman a look as she came over and tried a smile at the usually _not_ smiley cop.

Bad Cop swallowed thickly and also tried a smile. _Tried_.

 

"Well now or never. Remember, cel phones!" Emmet wiggled his own phone. He linked arms with Good Cop and tugged him gently down the right corridor of the mall. “Come’on you guys can do it!”

 

Daniel looked back at his counterpart, who had no taken his eyes off him. They kept eye contact until Wyldstyle gave Bad Cop a light touch on the arm, which made him nearly jump as he looked over at her.

"Come'on he'll be fine, Emmet is with him." She could tell he was uneasy and it was strange to see him like this. Besides the fact he was easily a decade older then she was, he'd always been this figure of straight-backed reserve, with a seemingly permanent scowl and quick to temper, chasing after her and her fellow master builders. But at that moment, he was anything but.

Danny glanced back again as he walked alongside her away from the others. He could imagine Daniel speaking to him in his head as they locked eyes, and they basically shared a conversation through their expressions to one another -

 

_< You okay buddy?  >_

**< F-...fine.  >**  
  
They knew it was not _all_ fine.  
  
 _< You're strong, be strong for me, and I'll be strong too. >_

**< I'll try G...I know this shouldn’t be as hard as it is but…it is… >**

_< Please don't worry...I'll be back soon.  >_

**< I know.  >**  
  
They knew but it didn't make it that much easier.  
  
 _< This isn't like before.  >_

**< ...  >**

 

 _Isn't like before isn't like before_. Danny repeated in his head as they lost sight of one another, rounding the curve of the mall.

 

Good Cop had been so worried for his other half he nearly forgot how HE felt about all this. He stared forward blankly as he turned his head around. His counterpart - no longer in eye shot, or ear shot. Why was this suddenly nowhere near as easy as he was feeling a moment ago?

Was it because...them 'having to get used to being apart' meant they were giving into the notion that Unikitty might not be able to fix this eventually? No, he’d never lose optimism for that, this was just expanding their horizons…yea.

He didn't quite know at that moment, but he gripped Emmet closer to him where he was on his arm and attempted one of his usually warm smiles. But even Emmet, who had not spent much time around either of the cops, could tell he was uneasy as his whole body seemed to stiffen.

 

"You doing...okay?" Emmet asked.

"O-okay enough." Good cop replied, staring forward with a tight jaw.

"Bad Cop, I mean, Danny...he will just be on the other side of the same mall. He'll be okay."

"I am quite assured he can take care of himself physically," Daniel managed a small smirk, still looking ahead.

"I...I don't mean to PRY but why is it so hard to just go walk around apart for a few hours? It's not like you guys are saying goodbye for months or even _days_."

"Days?" Good Cop seemed to mostly hear that word and he finally made eye contact with Emmet.

 

 _Three days_ , that is what Danny said, that he was asleep, in a coma, whatever it was. Daniel felt up at the small scar on his right temple from where the electrodes had been placed -

 

"Umm..." Emmet looked around trying to think of something to ease the other's nerves. "OH hey you...you like baking right?"

"Oh. OH...umm, yea, I do!” Good Cop blinked, like coming back to reality.

"I remember those cookies you made for Unikitty. Cause look, there is a nice cooking store here." Emmet pointed to a 'Williams Sonoma' sign down the hall.

 

Distracted from his wavering internal thoughts, Good Cop perked up a bit at Emmet’s enthusiasm. "Oh wow I've not been to this one yet..." He gasped, eager to explore it.

“And it's all for _you_! Like, Danny doesn't strike me as the homemaker type, yea?”

“Oh, he’s not - no. But he likes my cookin’ and doesn’t mind indulgin’ me.” Daniel was pulling Emmet along now as they walked into the store.  
  
“Ah,” Emmet replied, surprised Bad Cop sounded like he could be so…nice? Accommodating? Maybe Good Cop was exaggerating.

 

…

 

Meanwhile, Bad Cop was holding it together well enough in the sense he wasn't having an outright panic attack as they walked out of sight of Emmet. He was making Wyldstyle uneasy as he was just following her in a daze.

 

_Not like before not like before, he is okay, he is coming back, you’re not alone not alone -_

 

"You okay man?" She asked.

"Huh?" He startled slightly, looking to her.

"So... we could go to the bike shop. That sounds good to you? I need new gloves." She offered optimistically, seeing if distracting him with the actual shopping trip would alleviate whatever anxiety he was having about this. Wyldstyle knew little about the old henchman of Lord B's but she could figure based on him having a motorcycle he'd be okay with a bike shop.

She could imagine that they had been together their whole lives and all, but she just _couldn't_ wrap her head around how they _knew_ they were in the same mall and only minutes apart, and still acting so extreme like this. People should be able to function when alone, yes?

"Oh?" Bad Cop swore the temperature in the room went up 15 degrees and his eyes were not focusing properly.

"OR...anywhere else really I don't know what you like." She bit her lip. “Talk to me man.”

“The bike shop is fine.” He replied, putting a hand through his peppered auburn hair.

They started walking that direction; away of course from the path Emmet and Daniel had gone.

“So Bad Cop, Danny…can I call you that right?”

“Of course,” He replied stiffly, putting his hands in his coat front pockets so he wouldn’t fidget, or keep wanting to reach out for someone who wasn’t there.

“Just think of it like training if Unikitty can’t reverse it. I’m sure with practice you guys will learn to be independent people.” She coaxed.

“We appreciate your help, but we would greatly appreciate it if you would stop using the term ‘if’…” Bad Cop replied, trying not to sneer, “It’s not very optimistic.”

“Well, there is that possibility, I mean Unikitty has been pouring over research all week but it’s not something anyone has tried before.” She thought to herself then about how he was still using ‘we’ on some things even when apart from Good Cop.

 

“I’d rather not talk about it right now to be honest.” He sighed.

 

“Well you can talk to me about what gloves look best on be instead, come’on.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the motorcycle shop.

 

…

 

“Oh wow they got a tool for every little thing!” Emmet was amazed at all the cooking paraphernalia. He was no expert on cooking himself.

“Some things do need somethin’ specific!” Good Cop beamed, looking over a fancy lemon zester. It came in a few different colors. “Hey buddy, green or yellow?”

Emmet blinked and scrunched his face in thought, “Does it matter?”

Good Cop immediately became disoriented when he realized Danny was not there to answer. The question had been unconsciously address to _him_. He’d never not been there to answer. “Oh, I…it’s okay Emmet never mind.” He thought about what Danny would approve of, imagining his voice in his head. _Yellow, because it was like the color of the thing it is supposed to be for_ …yea…

“I wasn’t sure if the color made a difference in its function,” Emmet said truthfully, chuckling. Then he held up a funny looking bladed thing. “WOAH lookit this!”

“That is a pineapple slicer,” Good Cop giggled, trying to lead him over to the baking supplies.

“So what else can you make besides cookies?”

“All kinds of things! I can cook too; I am good at many dishes. We like to eat stuff like… lasagna, baked sweet potatoes, corned beef and veggies, cheese and broccoli…”

“Do you guys have similar food tastes then?”

“Overall, but there are some things we do not agree on. I am not a coffee drinker but Danny is. I like sweets a lot more than him. We like different kinds of ice cream…but will get a vanilla chocolate twist and share…”

“Don’t you guys ever fight over anything? You seem like total opposites. I’m just surprised I guess on how much you seem to agree on.” Emmet picked up a funny shaped cake pan and handed it to Daniel absentmindedly.

 

Good Cop looked it over just as distantly, “OH of course we fight every now and then, all siblings do. But we are…more than siblings really. We always make up. We work together…” He put down the cake pan and pet his hand over his opposite arm, then up to his temples. He inched in closer to Emmet and took his hand, but it wasn’t really the hand he was wanting right then.

 

…

 

“How about these?” Wyldstyle wiggled her fingers. The gloves were black with open knuckles and fuchsia edging.

“They look a size too small?” Bad Cop suggested, “Though the color is yours for sure.” He picked up a leather jacket that was on a rack next to him while he was at it, looking it over briefly.

She tried on a larger pair, “Ohhh nice?” She flexed her fingers at him again and struck a closed fist pose.

“Better,” He nodded, holding the jacket up like seeing if it’d fit his torso.

“Why don’t you try it on silly.” She teased him, pointing to the changing room.

“Oh - right,” He huffed, smiling nervously.

 

He went into the changing room, and took off his jacket, tossing it on the bench.

He stared at himself there in the mirror. He was just in his undershirt. Plain, simple, usual…

Suddenly it wasn’t a changing room.

 

It was a bathroom.

 

The sink was stained with washed out blood.   His face was wet with cold water. Breathing was hard. He looked at himself in the mirror, day old burn marks on his temples, his head pounding.

 

“We look like hell, I know G. What did he do to us this time eh?” Bad Cop rubbed at his face.

 

No answer. But he knew that…he kept talking anyway.

 

“I’ll finish the job, I’ll do it…finish what we started…together, yea?”

No answer.

 

“We could always do anythin’ together, eh G?” He felt the panic rising in him. He glanced to the cracked glasses on the counter.

 

He put them on, and tried a smile.

 

“Yea Buddy, I know we can.” The smile was not Good Cop’s.

 

Quiet.

So quiet.

 

_Nothin’ left, nothing left but your orders. That’s all you are, a guard dog. An angry guard dog on a choke chain leash. Everythin’ good in you is gone._

  
Alone.

_ALONE_

**_A L O N E._ **

 

The glasses hit the floor and so did Danny’s knees.

 

BANG.

_BANG BANG._

 

“Danny! HEY Danny!”

 

Wyldstyle was pounding on the door to no answer, and looking frantically to where she had called the clerk over to unlock the door.

The clerk’s hands were shaking as they did so. They had heard him talking to himself, then suddenly wailing, just, _piercing_ cries, and a sound like something falling.

 

Wyldstyle burst into the room, finding Bad Cop there on his knees, sobbing. Thankfully his sidearm was still holstered, she had thought something terrible in her mind -

“Hey, hey,” She tried to talk to him but he seemed like he was somewhere else.

“Bad Cop – Danny talk to me!” She shook his shoulder this time and shouted.

He sort of responded, the combination of her voice and touch breaking him out of the memory. He stopped crying, and looked up at her, wide eyed. His glasses were on the floor.

“It’s Wyldstyle, you’re at the mall. You’re okay.” She said, because he looked disoriented.

He swallowed back his tears and looked around, like realizing where he was, when he was. He felt at his face, and then retrieved his sunglasses. They were not cracked.

“Do you want me to call Daniel?” She asked, her heart still beating fast.

No he didn’t want him to see him like this…he just wanted a moment to breathe. Also, he didn’t want to show him he couldn’t be strong for him.

“No…but thank you.” He said huskily, easing up onto the bench. “Just give me a minute.”

“You want me to leave?”

“No!” He said a bit too loudly. “No.” He slouched. He didn’t want to be alone…and Wyldstyle seeing him was a lot better than a stranger.

The clerk got the message like they ought to leave and closed the door to give them privacy.

Lucy felt so awkward. She still didn’t really know how to act around Bad Cop. She’d become so used to thinking of him as a bad guy, but now, he was helping out the city and saving lives from all manner of crime, and the _Duplos_ reactions. And after seeing how Good Cop acted brain damaged for a good while after Emmet talked down Lord Business (heck his smile was still a tad lopsided…), she could see they had been hurt just as much as anyone else. She still did not exactly know what Lord Business did to them, but based on his actions just now, and those scars he kept feeling at, it had to have been something traumatic.

 

She came over and risked sitting next to him. To her surprise it relaxed him, and he took her hand, squeezing it.

“Can you do that texting thing with that?” He asked her cause her cel was still in her other hand.

“Yea. You want me to text the others?”

“Just ask how they are doin’.”

She texted with one hand and sent a message off to Emmet.

 

…

 

Good Cop and Emmet were walking out of the cooking store. Daniel had got a few small things to fill out his kitchen gadgets cabinet, not to mention baking decorating supplies.

 

“I can’t wait to show Danny,” He smiled at Emmet.

“I never thought I’d learn so much about fruit slicers.” Emmet blinked.

 

Suddenly someone came up to them in the hallway, a young man, “Hey, you’re that guy who talked down President Business…!” He pointed at Emmet, and came up like he wanted to shake his hand.

“Ah yea! That’s _me_.” He was not used to this ‘being famous’ thing but shook the man’s hand.

The man seemed to try and shy away from Daniel, like he was intimidated by him. “You’re not in trouble are ya?” He whispered in his ear when they leaned in to shake.

“What? No,” Emmet was confused.

The man leaned back in what he figured was safe distance, “You ain’t foolin’ no one with those cute glasses. I know what you did, to my sister. I’m just glad she’s alive thanks to him letting everyone go,” He pointed at Emmet.

Daniel felt his heart hit his stomach. The way that man looked at him…such _hatred_. He knew they’d done terrible things but they had not known Lord Business was lying. “I…I’m deeply sorry. We t-thought they were dangerous.” He said shakily. “Who was your s-sister?”

“Bet you wouldn’t even remember her even if I told you.” The man snorted.

Danny would either be switching in at a time like this or giving him some kind of snarky, confident come back, or a feeling of tough reassurance. But he wasn’t there…

“Hey, leave him alone!” Emmet yelped.

“You shouldn’t be defending him,” The man said. “He and the president ought to be behind bars.”

“I said knock it off!” Emmet tried to get between him and Good Cop.

 

A small crowd was gathering around at the ruckus.

 

“Tch you don’t look so tough.” The man huffed at Daniel. He’d have pushed past Emmet if he wasn’t so built. Also even though he was in off duty wear, the chief still had a sidearm on his belt. He decided it was best to back down before he got in trouble or something. The guy still was chief of police, crooked in his mind or no. “Shame on you if you can sleep at night, what you did.” The man sneered and walked off.

 

Good Cop was clutching the handle on his bag close to his chest with both hands, his whole body rigid.

 

He didn’t know what to do.

 

_What do I do._

_What if people jumped on me?_

_I’m not a good hand-to-hand fighter._

_And my hands…my hands are still shaky._

  
_Shaky._   
  
  
_Weak._

“Daniel? Hey.” Emmet came up to him. He had dispersed the crowd for the most part. “You’re shaking. That guy was a huge jerk - ignore him. Besides he’d never attack the chief of police, you are armed and everything.”

 

Good Cop glanced around at people staring at him.  
  
He suddenly felt like he was under a spotlight.  
  
He felt paralyzed. Held down.

_Held down._

 

_Helpless._

 

_‘Sir please – don’t –‘_

 

_‘Get out of here Bad Cop, you better bring back the other guy - ’_

 

He realized his knees were locked, and they unlocked as Emmet put his hands over his clenched fingers like trying to still him. He crumpled like his inability to walk came back all over again.

 

“Woah!” Emmet caught him. Good Cop was a big guy but Emmet was bigger. He brought him over to a bench in an alcove, out of the way, and sat him down.

“You alright?”

“I-I-I’m o-okay.” He lied.

“You don’t look okay.” Emmet said, getting out his phone with the intention to call Lucy.

 

When suddenly a text came in.

“Oh hey it’s from Lucy.”

 

_BC freaked out & just wants 2 know how GC is doin._

_Don’t tell him the first part._

_\- L_

“They just wanted to know how we are doing.” Emmet said.

 

Daniel breathed, calming himself down much as he could. He was the one who pushed Danny to try this. If his counterpart was doing alright, and not called it off yet, then he had no excuse to do so either. If Danny was being strong then he could be too.  
  
Danny was always the stronger one…Daniel looked up to him, relied on him. He did worry sometimes deep down he was just holding him back…being a burden…  
  
“I’m o-okay now. If Danny is okay, t-then I am too,” He managed a smile.

Emmet nodded and texted back.

 

_Some jerk verbally attacked him & he freaked._

_OK now though. Wants to keep going._

_Thanks babe._

_\- E_

Emmet waited and a text came in.

 

_Ok. If it happens again tell me._

_We’re just talking I think it is helping. Been through a lot._

_\- L_

Emmet hesitated and smiled at Daniel, “He misses you.”

“Awww…” Good Cop felt his heart slow a bit. “It’s o-only been like 30 minutes. I guess it’ll get e-easier…over time.”

“I’d think so.” Emmet replied. “You’re doing okay man.”

“Yea.”

“Want to get some food?”

 

…

 

“Yea they are okay.” Wyldstyle said, putting her phone away.

“I could never forgive meself if somethin’ happened and I wasn’t there,” Danny said.

 

Daniel was so optimistic, patient, outgoing. Danny always looked to him for support, relied on him. He sometimes wondered if he was just holding back his happiness…being a burden…

There was an uneasy beat of silence.

“Do you…want to talk about it?” Wyldstyle asked Bad Cop, unsure.

“How much do you know?” He rasped.

“Just…well we know something happened to Good Cop because we all saw how he acted for weeks. I can assume that Business hurt you guys.”

“…He came at us with some kind of electroshock machine.” Bad Cop spoke low but distant.  
  
He normally would not tell someone this, but Daniel was not there to talk to and he just HAD to talk to _someone_. And maybe it would help if she understood more. Maybe it was time to talk to someone else about it.  
  
“Through some means, Daniel was knocked out for _three days_.”

“Knocked out?” She blinked, “You mean like unconscious?”

“Yea. Though at the time - I didn’t know if he’d _ever_ come back.”

She thought a moment. “I remember when you fought off those robots for us, you said, _‘I hope there is still a good cop in me somewhere.’_ …you didn’t mean you, you meant Daniel?”

Danny nodded, “Yes. He had just spoken to me again, but was weak. But his voice was _there_ and that is what mattered…he wasn’t dead…”

 

It was crazy for Lucy thinking that you could ‘kill’ one of them like that. She then understood why Bad Cop was so full of anxiety, moreso then Good Cop, about the whole separation thing. He’d experienced being _alone_ , but Daniel had not.

 

Lucy felt her hand get released. Danny was standing up.

He looked in the mirror again.

“Did you try on the jacket yet?” She offered.

He held out his hand like she ought to hand it his way. She did, and he put it on.

“It fits!” She grinned, adjusting the shoulders for him. He had a broad top frame and narrower hips, and very triangle shaped, upper body toned type male figure.

“Yea.” He turned sideways, looking at himself. The mostly typical leather bike jacket had arm gussets and zippers on the sleeves, as well as shoulder snaps.

“You know, you ought to tell me your workout regimen, I’ve been trying to tone my arms up a bit.” She mentioned offhand, quite genuinely jealous of his toning. She was a woman and would never be built like _a guy_ of course, but still.

This seemed to relax Danny further and he turned to look at her, “Ah that so?” He smirked, “Ye think you could keep up with me?”

“I sure as hell ran circles around you for eight years I damn well think I could.”

“Circles?!” He barked playfully, pointing a finger into her chest, “Don’t get cocky now darlin’.”

She laughed, liking that she no longer had to be scared at him like this, “Yea, _circles_.” She crossed her arms.

“Tch,” Danny growled, opening the changing room door. “Alright out with ye little miss cocky.”

She let him be so he could change. Thankfully he was out a minute later with no issue.

“So about that workout regimen?” She asked as they walked out of the store. She was holding a bag that had both his jacket and her gloves in it.

“We’ll make arrangements.” Bad cop grinned, sunglasses catching a glint of light.

 

…

 

Emmet sat across from Good Cop at a small table in the food court. Between them was a tray with a Cinnabon and two takeout containers of Panda Express. Good Cop had intended to split the Cinnabon with him in an attempt to eat slightly less sweets.

“I haven’t had this shit in forever,” Emmet laughed, nomming on rice and bourbon chicken.

“Danny and I always fought over to get white or fried rice.” Daniel said, thinking about how in line he had automatically asked in his head to him, to get no reply of course.

“Lemme guess you like the white rice?” He pointed to the white rice on Good Cop’s plate.

“Actually, I like the fried rice.”

“Then why did you get white?” Emmet tried not to talk with his mouth full but he was not succeeding 100% in that effort.

Daniel stared at the rice. It was like his counterpart was with him then, like he’d chose it.

“To try something different.” He lied.

“It’s good with salt.” Emmet passed him a salt packet.

“Thanks buddy.” Good Cop was smiling softly. He poked around at his cooked veggies. Danny liked him to save him the broccoli…

“Have you just been thinking of Danny this whole time?” Emmet said in a more perceptive tone then one might think possible. He acted a little goofy like Good Cop, but he was no fool either.

 

“…” Daniel sighed deeply biting his lip. “I’ve been tryin’ _not_ to. But Emmet, you must understand, we have lived _our whole lives_ together. Every day. Every single second. We share and do _everythin’ together_.” He left the broccoli on his plate and took a bite of chicken.

“You still can do most everything together…but…isn’t it good to be your own person too?”

Good Cop put his plastic fork down a bit abruptly. “That’s just it. I don’t know if I CAN,” Emmet, anyone, they could never really understand, could they? “We’re not like other people Emmet. You just don’t get it!”

“Hey, calm down, I’m sorry!” Emmet was worried he set him off again, “I thought you guys were doing well at the station? Everyone seemed like you guys were still this perfect team. You are like this dynamic duo now, super cops!” Emmet gave a pose.

Good Cop smiled like he appreciated his friendly help. “You’re a good guy Emmet. And...it’s nice to have you as a friend. We don’t think we deserve all this kindness after what we did, but you guys gave it anyway. You all gave us a second chance.”

“It was a hard time for a lotta people, but we made it, you made it, people are rebuilding.”

“We were rebuildin’ too. Danny helped me through my recovery. He looked after me every second, did everythin’ I asked. But then after I recovered, and things were back to what we’d consider normal, the alchemy accident happened – and now everythin’ is upside-down again.”

Emmet didn’t quite know what to say. Maybe he should call Lucy, maybe it was time…

“Let’s finish eating before it gets cold.” Daniel said. “Tell me somethin’ about yourself.”

“Me?”

“Yea, we’ve been talkin’ about me this whole time haha,” Daniel was trying to take focus off thoughts of Danny and learn more about his new friend.

Emmet went off talking about how him and Lucy were going to move in together soon, make themselves up a nice apartment – something close to where he could work on the rebuild progress. He talked about Wyldstyle’s amazing videogame skills, how she schooled him at the arcade, and he didn’t mind at all. Daniel listened as he ate, not touching the broccoli.

They finished up and made their way down the hall again.

 

…

 

“You _read_?” Wyldstyle blinked as they walked through a bookstore.

 

“Why is that shocking to you?” Danny raised an eyebrow, browsing through the murder mystery section.

 

“I dunno, it just seems like such a … _calm_ , quiet activity.”

“I’m not beating up chairs and yellin’ at people 24/7 you know.” He grunted, picking up a McBain novel.

“Heh, no I’m beginning to realize that.” She said, poking at the shelves not really caring what she picked up. “Does Daniel read too?”

“Of course. He likes fantasy novels, but we do both like murder mystery kind of things.”

“Do you dislike the fantasy novels?”

“I don’t _despise_ them or anythin’. We kind of expose each other to new things.”

She was curious now, “So when like, you are reading, can Daniel see what you are doing? Can you read together? I mean when you guys were like before.”

Danny tilted his head, squinting at her behind his aviators, “Of course. We can see and hear everythin’ the other is doing.”

“Oh. See, I did not really know that.” She shrugged. “See and hear _all the time_?”

“If we choose so. If Daniel was readin’ something and I was bored, I could tune it out and basically take a nap. Though if I paid attention, it’d be like him reading _to me_.”

 

Lucy was freaken fascinated now. Bad Cop talked so nonchalantly about it all like it was totally normal. She kind of assumed they were very separate and just talked to each other in their head or whatever it was they did.

 

Danny was kind of trying to go back to reading the back of the book in his hands but she was inching closer with interest. “Does that mean you didn’t need to ever really like, lie down and sleep?”

“Oh no we still need to _sleep_ ,” He glanced at her, “Sure we can nap while the other is busy, which was super useful on a stake out or something, heh. But not outright _sleep_. We…dream together. We don’t dream and rest fully unless both are asleep.”

“Ahh,” She put the book in her hands back, “What is it like dreaming alone now then? Weird I bet.”

 

“Actually,” His voice softened, “We haven’t.”

 

“No dreaming?” She tilted her head.

“No, neither of us. Not since the split.” He pressed his lips together and turned away from her, still holding the book.

“Oh,” Wyldstyle was shocked to hear that, “Are you not sleeping okay then?”

“It was fine at first cause you know not everyone remembers their dreams in the mornin’, but it’d been continuing every night. Now after almost a week straight of it, the unrestfulness is beginning to build up…” He sighed, “We’ve not told anyone this, not even Unikitty.”

“You should tell her! She wanted to keep posted on your physical state and all.”

“It’s just kind of private you know?” He glanced over his shoulder and down at her, “We’ve never really discussed ourselves with anyone but Ma and Pa. And we still have not told them about _this_ whole situation even.”

“No I…I getcha.” She nodded. “I won’t tell but, you should, when you wanna talk to her.”

 

“I need some air.” He put the book back suddenly and made a beeline for the outside door of the book store.

 

…

 

“What you think of this one buddy?” Daniel held up a shirt, but –

 

\- it wasn’t the right person there.

 

“It’s…purple? That’s your color?” Emmet laughed.

“Ah well, sometimes.” Daniel bit his lip. They both liked plain black and white, but sometimes were known to wear dark purple with coaxing from Good Cop.

 

They were now browsing through the recesses of a Macy’s, and Good Cop had gravitated to the shirts, saying they needed some more casual wear.

 

“How about this one,” This time he really was addressing his friend. He held up a smartly cut, button down collar gray shirt with a light striping to it.

“Not bad,” Emmet nodded, “You guys can pull off that sleek look haha, I don’t look good in formal wear.”  
“This isn’t even that formal.” Daniel picked up another shirt, “To be honest around the house we just wear a tank top.”

“Yea I’m about the same.” Emmet nodded.

 

The changed departments, aimlessly wandering about.“Heh,” Emmet pawed over a display of sunglasses. “You know I’d kill to see Bad Cop in these.” He held up a pair of pink heart-shaped ones.

Daniel chuckled, “OH my. He’d never be caught _dead_ in them.”

“You try them on. We can send a pic to Lucy.” Emmet held up his cel, snickering.

Good Cop laughed and switched his cute round glasses (which were only for show anyway he didn’t need glasses to see) out for the heart shaped ones. He tried his best grumpy face, attempting to imitate his counterpart.

“Oh my GOD.” Emmet snorted, imagining it as Bad Cop as he took the photo. He could still tell it wasn’t him though, even with Good Cop posing like him.

 

“Hehehee,” Daniel giggled as he looked at himself in the little mirror attached to the display. He sure did look funny. He tried to imagine it as Danny. Try as he might he could never really look like him. Also now that he had the ever so slight droop in his smile and eye, it made the distinction even more apparent if you knew what to look for.

 

Good Cop glanced down at the rest of the display as he took off the joke sunglasses. His own glasses were in his front pocket, where they might be put if Danny was in control at the time. On the display was also a few pairs of mirrored aviators. Cheaper then Danny’s nice pair, but…similar. He picked one up and turned it over in his hands, then put it on and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

 

Suddenly the mirror began to shake.

 

A robot was holding it up for him to see.

 

There were more robots, holding them down.

 

The aviators were ripped from their face.

 

_‘Bad Cop, I thought I told you I wanted to see the other guy! I can tell that is still you.’_

_‘ Sir – ‘_

_‘Do you want your parents to be sent to the melting chamber too? I’m being nice just having them be kragled! They are dangerous master builders you know! You don’t seem to understand that.’_

_‘I’ll do it sir – I – ‘_

_‘No it’s too late for that. You made it pretty clear - Good Cop is making you soft. If we’re to finish this on Taco Tuesday, he can’t be in the way!’_

I forced him, I forced him out. I took control.

 

_‘Sir, I’m sorry. I promise I won’t get in the way. Just let us go!’_

 

 _‘That’s a good boy.’_ Business could tell it was me now. _‘Robots! Bring in the machine!’_

 

Danny, Danny screaming at me to let him out. Trying to take over. Trying to protect me.

 

_‘Buddy no, you can’t protect me from everythin’! I’m the one that got us into this mess. He’ll just beat us up again if you come out.’_

_‘I can take it G, I can take it. You can’t, you can’t - ’_

_‘Buddy I’ll be okay! Let me han-‘_

_**ZZAAAAaaappp** _

 

Everything suddenly went white.

 

Move, can’t move.

 

Ringing, can’t hear anything.

 

Pain? Not sure.

 

Distant shouting – like my head is full of sand.

 

_**ZZZZZzzzAAAAPPPpppp** _

 

White suddenly again – longer this time.

_No sound._

_Blackness…_

 

 

_So quiet._

 

“Daniel?” Emmet was still giggling as he got a reply from Lucy saying _‘ahaha real funny dorkface.’_ Good Cop was just staring at himself in the mirror.

 

“Hey, you alright?”

 

 _This isn’t Danny, this…he’s not here._ He was thinking now, hearing fuzzing back slowly as he heard Emmet trying to speak to him.

_No matter how much I try to fake it, it’s not him, it’s only me._

_Only me._

_How many times did Danny do this, with my glasses?_

_In the mirror?_

_While I was knocked out?_

 

“Daniel?” Emmet put his hand to Good Cop, ready to catch him again if he fainted like before.

 

Daniel snapped out of it, knees buckling, but he kept his balance. He breathed in deeply. “H-Hey,” He said vaguely, slipping off the aviators, shakily putting them back.

 

“Call Wyldstyle, I’d…I’d like to see Danny now…”

 

…

 

Danny was leaned outside the book shop looking a bit uneasy.

Wyldstyle was sitting near him on a bench.

Her phone chimed with a text.

She snorted and showed the screen to Bad Cop. “Looks like they are having fun.”

“Oh geeze,” Daniel couldn’t help but smile, leaning in to see the photo. That was Daniel, he was doing okay…

Wyldstyle texted them back and felt better already like a heavy mood was lifted.

Bad Cop’s smile faded and he hugged his arms around himself.

“What’s up man?” She prodded.

“How long has it been?”

“Little over two hours?” She checked the time.

 

He was tired. And it wasn’t just the not sleeping well hitting him as afternoon tiredness, or that they had not got lunch like the others had, he was mentally _exhausted_.

 

She got a text suddenly asking where they were.

 

_Outside the book shop by the parking lot._

_\- L_

 

_Stay there we’re coming to you._

_\- E_

 

“Emmet is coming here.” She told him.

“Heh like he read my mind,” Bad Cop slumped onto the bench with her.

“You look tired.” She said, worried.

 

Emmet and Good Cop were actually were not that far away - they took a short cut outside the mall, the exit of Macy’s was next to the book shop around the curve of the parking lot.

 

Danny caught sight of them walking through the parking lot, and suddenly he wasn’t so tired anymore.

 

He got up and went from walking to running.

 

Daniel started running too soon as he saw him.

 

Out of nowhere emotion hit Danny all over again, and they were both choked up as they practically _plowed_ into one another, staggering as they hugged one another like old friends seeing one another after a year or more apart. They hugged each other tight, not moving for a good few moments as they relaxed into one another’s arms. Good Cop’s voice shuddered in a happy laugh as Bad Cop buried his face into his neck and hair and didn’t give a shit if anyone saw him kissing him on the forehead and laughing just as happily in return.

 

“You alright?” Danny asked, while the other was fixing his off kilter sunglasses.

“Geeze buddy, I’m okay,” Daniel laughed, while Danny was fixing his collar.

“Nice to hear your voice,” Danny was smiling despite himself.

“Yours too.” Daniel wiped away some tears.

 

Wyldstyle caught up and went over to Emmet. They both stood there watching the cops joyously conversing and fussing over one another. Good Cop opened his bag and showed his counterpart the shirt he got him.  Also, that he saved him the broccoli in his take-out.  Danny hugged him all over again. 

 

“Wow.” Emmet whispered to her, not taking his eyes of the cops, “They really are freaken _inseparable_.”

 

She nodded, pressing her lips together.

 

\- L

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was very fun to write - sorry it got so long I really wanted to put detail into it. <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wyldstyle worries they did more harm them good and pays the cops a visit at the precinct. 
> 
> Unikitty gets a new idea on how to investigate the alchemy problem thwarting her...

After the ‘experiment’, Emmet and Wyldstyle worried they had done more harm than good, especially as they told each other about each of the cop’s traumatic episodes.   They had not realized exactly what Business did to them, nor did they realize just _how_ _close_ they were to one another. They could _assume_ , they had shared body and all, but they really had known so little.

 

In fact it worried them so much that Lucy went by the police station the next afternoon.

 

“Is the chief in?” She asked the first officer she saw upon walking in.

 

It was officer Fredricks. “Oh, they just got back. Good timing!” she replied. Everyone knew Wyldstyle’s face from what she did on Taco Tuesday. Fredricks really admired her for her bravery and it was part of what inspired her to apply for the new police force and leave her job as a self defense arts teacher.

 

“Thanks,” Wyldstyle replied, following her to their office.

 

The cops were filing a report for a robbery at the matter bank they had broken up that morning. It had involved a car chase; thankfully no one had been hurt. People were antsy with all the stress of the duplos reactions…no one knew where one might hit next. Even some kragled matter Business had helped reconfigure was having strange effects. Thank goodness they had not had to deal with him, the idea alone of seeing him made their chest feel tight. They wondered if he knew about what happened to them with the alchemy accident…

 

“Ug,” Danny grumbled, stapling the paper he just finished filling out.

 

They hated paperwork. Bad cop especially. Though as two people, they could both work on it at once, which was pretty convenient. Each of them was at the desk working on a different page of the same report using their preferred color of pen.

 

“Here get this thing away from me,” Daniel handed his counterpart his half of the paperwork, and tossed his blue pen aside. “That’s the last of it I hope.”

 

“I think so,” Danny just wanted to get out of the office soon as possible.

 

However, there was a knock at the door –

 

“Come in,” They said in unison.

 

“Not interrupting am I?” Lucy poked her head in.

 

“No, you’re fine!” Daniel smiled, happy to see her.

 

Danny smiled too, which meant Lucy was someone he definitely liked and trusted, to garner such an expression, “What can we do for you?”

 

She closed the door and sat down in front of their desk.

 

“I wanted to…apologize.” She said,

 

“Apologize?” Daniel blinked, “For what?”

 

“For yesterday. Emmet and I are worried we did more harm than good with the whole mall trip.”

 

The cops paused, glancing at one another. Danny answered with a lean onto the desk, “We know you were just tryin’ to help. And…in the end it did.”

 

“We talked at length afterward, and it actually helped me a lot. I…I better understand what Danny went through now.” Good Cop bit his lip thoughtfully.

 

Bad Cop glanced over at him, clasped his hand over his, and nodded.

 

They thought back to yesterday evening -

 

...

...

 

“Buddy - ” Good Cop began as they were getting ready for bed. Danny was already sitting on the bed; Daniel was kicking off his shoes and socks. The room was dim and quiet, and Daniel’s tone rose over it like a rumble of distant thunder.

 

“Yea?” Bad Cop could tell he wanted to say something important. What else was there…after their talk earlier?

 

“I know we already talked about what happened at the mall… _”_

They had never kept anything from one another, and they weren’t about to start now. One of the first things they did upon getting back to their apartment, besides sitting down over fresh made breakfast-for-dinner waffles, was to tell each other what happened. That meant admitting their panic attack like flashback breakdowns they each had, in gut wrenching detail.

 _“_ But there is somethin’ I did not say.”

 

Danny followed him with his eyes as he joined him sitting on the bed.

 

Daniel spoke down at fidgeting hands as he continued, “Try as I might I never really, _really_ could understand how you felt. When you were - _alone_. Not before now.” He choked up as he paused, but Danny didn’t say anything to fill the gap. He did put out a hand though, clasping fingers over his.

 

“I know it is not _exactly_ the same as what you experienced, I knew you were okay and minutes away inside the same mall, but even knowing that, as time wore on I got so _uneasy_. Really, truly anxious, like a hole inside me I couldn’t fill. Then as I was looking in a mirror with a pair of sunglasses like yours on and…and trying to mimic you in jest – b-but I couldn’t of course.

 

“And I – I wondered, how many times you did that when you didn’t know if I was coming back. How many times did you hear ‘my voice’ in your head hoping…hoping the next time it’d really be me. You - you did that…d-didn’t you?”

 

There was a pause, Danny looking right at those big, sad eyes. He reached up and gently slipped off the other’s glasses. This was a very intimate gesture for them, something they’d not be comfortable with anyone else doing. Of course, Daniel did not flinch as it was Danny doing it, he just watched, silently.

 

“...they were cracked.” Danny said distantly, breath trembling as he drew his fingers over his counterpart’s glasses in his lap, “Lord Business had given them back to me, like remindin' me of my punishment. I had not noticed they were still in my front pocket until I got home. I was so out of it...everythin’ was so quiet. I put them on thinkin’ it would bring you out. It didn't. I kept using them, hopin’ it would work…talking in the mirror, pretendin' it was you. But still, only silence, every time.”

 

Emotion finally caught up to him and tears stung the corners of his eyes. “I thought you were _dead_ , Daniel! DEAD. I couldn't - I couldn't cope with it. I couldn’t even _begin_ to think of how to go on without you….”

 

Good cop was glassy eyed but he stayed strong for his counterpart. Danny was always the strong one, protecting him and giving him confidence. He _needed_ him there, grounding him. Danny put on this big tough exterior, and he was the most resilient person he knew, but only Daniel really understood what a caring person his brother was deep down, and that he needed reassurance and kindness to survive. He was never fully comfortable to show the extent of that vulnerability to the rest of the world.

 

“You shouldn’t ‘ve had to go through that.” Danny rasped, gripping his hand tighter, “I wish you hadn’t…”

 

“Buddy, it’s _good!_ I am _glad_ it happened. Cause like I said, I- I _understand_ now.” Daniel’s voice was breaking and ardent, “It was the one thing we had not both experienced, one thing we were really divided on. I felt so _guilty_ you had this weight you carried around and I couldn’t relate, and we relate on _everything_. You don’t have to carry it all on your own anymore.”

 

“Oh G,” Danny swallowed. He was not happy his counterpart had to feel that, even if it did mean he could understand better. Danny liked to protect him even though he knew his brother was strong. When Daniel was happy, so was he.

 

He _needed_ him to be there, to be that optimistic voice in his head. He needed his cheerful smile and his silly hobbies that he wouldn’t be caught dead doing but loved to watch him take joy in. He was not only his friend and his brother, but the other half of him, filling in the gaps in his soul that he didn’t know how to fill. Now not only was that feeling gone from inside him, but he was watching it melt down outright in front of him.

 

Bad Cop sighed and relaxed his body, slumping into his counterpart. He lifted up an arm and hugged him sideways, head drooped.

 

“I’m sorry Buddy, I’m sorry,” Daniel swallowed back tears unsuccessfully, turning and hugging him proper. Danny was limp in his arms but did finally hug him back.

 

“I jes’ didn’t know if you were comin’ back…” Danny murmured, voice cracking and accent thickening.

 

“I know…I know.”

 

“I jes’ couldn’t imagine what I’d do without you...” It was obvious he was crying now, even if Good Cop couldn’t see it, “I jes couldn’t…”

 

Daniel hugged him tighter.

 

“Sometimes I worry I-I’m not jes a burden to ya…”

 

“No!” Daniel held him out by the biceps, looking at him. It was so weird to see his counterpart crying, he so rarely did that. And not to mention looking at it from the outside. “No you – you are the best brother ever, ye hear? You protect me and - and give me confidence, and make sure we’re in good shape after I eat all those sweets…”  

 

Danny gave a small laugh at that last part. But then he was conflicted again, “No you – _you_ are the best. I’m a short-fused sad sack, I’m anti-social, I don’t play well with others…”

 

“It’s funny you said that Buddy…cause…I was worried that I’ve been being the burden to _you -_ ”

 

“Never!” Bad Cop was even louder then Daniel had been when he objected. He groaned out a sigh afterward, lowering his voice to continue and turning to face his counterpart, “No, you are _never_ a burden. Didn’t ye hear me before when I said I wouldn’t know how to go on without you? You…you are…like the best part of me.”

 

“I’d say the same of you.” Daniel pressed his lips together, glancing down.

 

 _‘Me? The best part of Daniel?’_ Bad cop thought with disbelief. No he could never believe that. But that he said it…

 

Both were just so happy to get that off their chests. They knew how much they cared for each other and needed one another, but their disconnect had been growing worse and worse. The sleepless nights, the missing communication, that hole inside them growing bigger every day. That combined with still coming to terms with what happened around Taco Tuesday…

 

But now though that one event, at the mall, with Daniel now really understanding one thing he could never fully understand before, it helped close the gap just that little bit.

 

“We going to fight over who is the better brother now?” Danny jested.

 

“Heh,” Daniel smiled through teary eyes, “I guess so!”

 

Danny shook his head smiling despite himself.

 

It was nice to see him smile like that, thought Daniel. He pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly.  
  
"T-thanks for...being so strong."

 

Danny returned it, dipping his head onto his shoulder.  
  
"I couldn't be...without _you_."

 

...

...

 

Wyldstyle glanced between the cops. “Really? It… _helped_?”

 

Both cops nodded to Wyldstyle in confirmation.

 

She looked especially to Bad Cop, whose solemn expression told her he was remembering all they talked about. She smiled softly at him. _‘You two are really lucky to have each other. Must be nice having a brother awesome as each of you.’_ She thought.

 

 

“And we’re _never_ doing it again.” Bad Cop furrowed his brow over his aviators and frowned.

 

She laughed, then covered her mouth, “Right, right of course. Does this mean Daniel will be coming to that training session you owe me?”

 

“Let’s hope by then Unikitty figures this all out,” Good Cop moaned.

 

“Yea, have you heard from her?”

 

“No actually, she must be really busy...” Daniel replied.

 

“You’d think she wants to do more tests,” Danny huffed indignantly.

 

…

 

…

 

“AHhhhhhrGGG!!”

 

“Princess?”

 

“THIS IS DEFINITELY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTEDRRAARRRgggg!!”

 

The princess’s fur was fluffed and singed at the tips like it had caught fire. She had been trying all day with her building. She’d been researching and reading and searching far and wide for other master builders who knew alchemy as well as she did.

 

However, after a week of trials and advice from far and wide, as well as Vitruvius helping any way he could, she didn’t know if she was any closer to finding a way to safely transfer a _grounded_ consciousness into _an already occupied_ body.

 

“I can play with dummy matter all day it just is not the same!” She tossed aside the pile of rainbow matter she had been practicing with, it crashed apart into stars and sparkles as it hit the wall.

 

“Calm yourself Princess,” Vitruvius sighed, his ghostly form flickering as he moved to her other side, “We obviously got something right the first time as we were able to transfer Good Cop from Bad Cop to begin with…so we did move a consciousness about safely.”

 

“I know I knowww,” She pouted, calming a bit. Her fur cooled back into pink and blue hues. “But as it stands now, we are basically just banking on the fact that their original body is somehow fundamentally different than anyone else’s to have held two consciousness like it did…and in my preliminary scans I did not see anything inherently different. All I could tell was which body was the copy.”

 

“Maybe that is all we need.” He said.

 

“But if we are wrong we might lose Daniel’s consciousness as we try to move it back to their original body, and he is not a builder like _you_ with all your spiritual mumbo-jumbo.” Unikitty slumped.

 

Vitruvius was always amused at the Princess, so much power, building talent, and intelligence yet such a cutesy way of speaking and such a _temper_. It was no wonder she meditated and practiced anger management. “I know that too. We’ll do everything we can do make sure that doesn’t happen.”

 

“HEY,” She looked to the ghostly old builder, “That might just be it! Maybe I am going about this all wrong. Alchemy doesn’t really deal with consciousness, that is more your department!”

 

“Me?” The old man blinked.

 

“I got to get the boys back here for some _new_ tests,” She smacked her hand into her palm.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually roleplayed out the cop's post-mall chat with AliceApproved but it ended up being too long to actually include, so I just referenced it after the fact, which was my original planned intention for this part. :) The 'waffles' bit is inspired by the RP though! Much thanks to her for some nicely thought out Good Cop inspiration!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cops decide it is time to tell their parents about the accident.

Even with everything going on there was just the little matter of -

 

\- their parents.

 

They _had_ to tell them.

 

Now that things had settled they felt comfortable enough to face them with the whole issue - and with the lack of proper sleep piling up, it was better sooner than later. On one hand, they thought their parents would be very excited to get to see and hug _both_ their boys at the same time, but on the other, what if the shock was too much?

 

Well, they would try to make it a _gentle_ surprise then...

****

A couple police reports, one carjacking, and a few speeding tickets later, they came home far earlier than usual that evening. The sun was still just barely up.  
  
“Want to try and tell them _tonight_?” Good Cop could tell his counterpart had been thinking of the same thing as neither made a move to get food out for dinner, “We could still make it to the countryside before dark if we leave soon.”  
  
“Yea, it’s way past time for it,” Danny sighed as he got the phone. “You call.”

 

Daniel stood with the phone to his ear. Danny was right next to him listening to the ring tone.

 

"Hello?" They heard their Pa pick up on the other end.

 

"Hi Daddy!" Daniel smiled.

 

"Son, hey!" He laughed softly, "How things going in the big city? Not heard from you boys in a while." They could hear Mum talking in the background - 'oh is that the boys?'

 

“Our city is doin’ just fine.” He glanced at Danny. It was a bit late to casually ask if they could come over for dinner, so he said, “We got something we need to tell you in person. Can we come over?"

 

"Right now? Is everythin' alright?" He sounded concerned on the other end.

 

"Don't worry we're okay haha," Daniel licked his lips, glancing to Danny, offering the phone.

 

Danny took it and added, "Dad, we're fine. We just wanted to see you. Both of us. Maybe steal some leftovers, we haven’t had dinner yet."

 

"Heh alright. Well, we're home and we do have plenty of leftover pot roast stew, you know yer Ma likes to make a huge vat o’ the stuff. So..." Pa could tell something was funny but both his boys sounded okay.

 

"Great! You know we love Ma’s stew," Daniel had taken the phone again. "See you soon then, we love you!"

 

"Love you too, heh." They could hear Mum in the background trying to talk over Pa to say so as well. "See you later boys."

 

Daniel hung up and looked to his counterpart. "Well, now or never, yea?"

 

"Yea," Danny took a deep breath.

 

...

 

The sun was just starting to nestle into the horizon as they clicked on their helmets and got on their motorcycle. It was so strange for Danny to have a _passenger_. Good Cop could drive a bike too, just it was usually Bad Cop driving as he was the true motorcycle enthusiast and it was something he took a lot of pleasure in, so it was habit as he took the driver seat without question.

 

"It's a nice sunset," Daniel said, settling into the back seat, and gripping his arms around his counterpart securely. Their bike was not _small_ , but it was a cozy fit to have two men their size on it.

 

Danny reved up the engine and raised the kickstand, "Yea, sure is."

 

They drove in silence until they neared the familiar countryside of their parent's home. The green hills rolled like waves, dipping and breaching like friendly whales following along the roadways. Daniel leaned his head into Danny's back, watching the scenery fly by. Purple martins darted over the fields trying to get in one last dash for insects before dark. Some flew so fast right alongside them it was like they were racing them.

 

"I think they will be really happy, you know? After the initial shock and worry!" Daniel had to remember to raise his voice over the wind noise. It had always been easy for them to chat while on their bike, except for now.

 

Danny nodded, “I hope so!”

 

Daniel held on tighter as they then took a particularly sharp curve down a sloping hill. Soon as they leveled out again on the straightaway he spoke up, “Careful buddy! The bike is heavier now!”

 

“I know I know!” Danny laughed, turning his head for just a second. “Been a long while since we drove a passenger. Least we’re makin’ use of that back seat again, eh?”

 

Good Cop huffed at his counterpart’s cockiness but he replied, “Yea, true.”

 

The motorcycle shortly after rolled to a stop in front of their parent's house. Little white picket fence and everything. Picture perfect.

 

They hung their helmets on the handlebars and tentatively came up to the door. Daniel was about to knock, Danny just behind him. He glanced back to get a confirming nod that they were both ready. Danny stepped off to the side out of view.

 

_Knock knock…_

 

Ma opened the door, "Good evenin' son!" She beamed, seeing the round glasses of Daniel. Pa was just behind her. They had always defaulted to calling them ‘son’ most of the time, as it was true whoever was at the forefront _was_ their son.

 

"Hey Ma, how you feelin'?" Daniel asked, not giving her a hug right away like he usually did.

 

"A bit better in fact. Come'on in. It's gettin' dark!"

 

Daniel hesitated and put out his hands like halting her - "Now we...we said we had somethin' to tell you. You both...ready?"

 

"Ready? For what?" Pa furrowed his brow.

 

"Ready for a bit of a shock?" Daniel smiled nervously, his slightly laggy side of his smile seeming more apparent than usual.

 

"Well you gonna to tell me on the stoop or inside?" She put her hands on her hips; worry creeping into her mind with each passing second.

 

Good Cop stepped aside - to make room for Bad Cop as he walked into view next to him.

 

Their parents _froze_.

 

They blinked a few times making sure their glasses were not screwing with their vision. Pa even took his off and cleaned them, the double vision still there as he put them back on. Ma's mouth gaped as she kept looking between them.

 

"You're not seeing double. There was...an alchemy incident." Danny stated calmly. Calmly as he could considering. He pressed his lips together and attempted a smile.

 

"I - what...?" Ma still couldn't quite comprehend what she was seeing.

 

"The alchemy accident, it split us apart. Into two separate physical people." Daniel confirmed.

 

"Holy moley..." Pa gasped, feeling his legs weaken a bit, even his prosthetic robotic one.

 

"Son - sons?" Ma blinked, stepping closer and putting out her hands to see if it was real. She laid a hand to each of their chests.

 

"Heh yea we're both real Mummy," Danny chuckled lowly.

 

"And we're okay, like...we're not _hurt_." Daniel reassured, taking her fingers into his hands.

 

"Oh my stars," She felt her eyes sting with tears, not really sure what to feel. On one hand she was worried about them but on the other - her boys, her _BOYS_. She could see them and touch them both at the same time, for the first time!

 

She jumped onto them and hugged her arms around them, laughing and crying.

 

Danny and Daniel laughed too, emotion overwhelming them. They hugged her back and looked to Pa like he should join in.

 

He came forward, his robotic leg whirring as he shifted his weight strongly under his buckling stance in the shock of everything. He fell into them and soon they were one big group hug, the taller sons cupped around their shocked parents.

 

"My boys!" Ma laughed through tears, "Oh my goodness..." She pulled down Danny's face, looking him over, and then she reeled in Daniel. She patted at both their cheeks and cried out with delight despite herself.

 

"Ma," Danny grimaced softly as he was fussed over.

Daniel laughed and nuzzled into her hand.

 

She finally stopped fussing long enough so they could all come inside. Both she and Pa still in shock staring as the boys stood in the kitchen. They each had their own unique body language and posture, and their parents had grown used to it in how to aid in telling them apart... just, now it was happening in two separate bodies. Their twin boys had become _true_ twins.

 

"I still can't believe it," Pa put a hand to his head, looking them over. "And you are both, okay?"

 

"Yes Dad. Physically, we are fine." Danny stated, opening the fridge to see if there was any juice in there.

 

"As we said there was an alchemy accident - " Daniel quickly explained what happened a week ago with the other master builders, Unikitty, and Vitruvius…and how Unikitty was looking into a way to reverse it too.

 

"Oh my,” Ma gasped by the end of the story.

 

“What’s it been like this past week or you both?” Their father asked.

 

Danny sipped at his cup of apple juice and then took off his sunglasses. He placed them on the counter. “It’s been… _somethin’_ alright.”

 

“It’s been up and down,” Daniel nodded, holding his own cup of juice with both hands, “We’ve got to do fun things like teach each other directly which we’ve never been able to do. Danny taught me better aiming with a laser pistol, and I showed him how to flip pancakes, things like that. Getting to really see each other, hug, share meals!”

 

Danny nodded bashfully.

 

“And at the station we can both work on paperwork, and are even more efficient partners on the field with two sets of hands, haha!” Daniel grinned.

 

“Yea sure is nice to have him drive while I can actually aim at things,” Danny confirmed.

 

Their parents smiled. “Yea that must be swell!” Pa said.

 

“Oh my stars yes, how wonderful!” Ma beamed, “You two were always my twin boys, but course your childhood as siblings was not the usual sort. Now you are getting to experience it as adults at least! Must be nice, yes?”

 

Good Cop and Bad Cop mumbled back a ‘yea’ as they nodded.

 

They were all quiet for a second. Unlike everyone else, their parents could understand how the two of them really worked together as a unit. They wondered how _that_ was affecting them.

 

“But as you kin’ imagin’…it’s also been difficult to adjust. We’ve been doin’ alright. We…found it hard to be away from one another. Even just in separate rooms. But Brickoski and Lucy coaxed us into an outing though the other day.” Danny stated.

 

“Separately?” Pa looked up.

 

“I’m sure everyone else was thinkin’ you’d both run far away from each other as possible soon as ye could,” Ma chuckled into her tea mug, albeit a little solemnly.

 

“Heh, yea everyone did think that.” Danny smoothed a hand through his hair.

 

“So…how was it? Getting to be independent? I mean we know how you boys rely on one another but surely it must have been nice to get to do things on your own terms? Least a little bit?” Ma said.

 

“It was just a few hours at the mall,” Daniel said, then swallowed thickly, unconsciously drawing up next to Danny and leaning on the counter with him, “And it was nice to try it out but…well…”

 

“We’re just really hopin’ Unikitty can fix this.” Danny put his cup down, not wanting to elaborate.

 

Good Cop placed his cup next to his counterpart’s, then fidgeted a hand down to clasp their fingers together. “Yea it’s…more than just it being strange for us it’s…”

 

“It’s like we’re so mentally _exhausted_. We’re not used to doin’ everythin’ on our own.” Bad Cop smoothed a hand over his face. “It’s like our brains are not made to take on the load on their own. I can’t think of a better way to describe it.”

 

“Especially with sleeping - ” Daniel added.

 

“Yea and that too. We’ve stopped dreamin’ at night. Since the accident it feels like we haven’t had a _real_ night’s sleep. It’s just making it worse.”

 

“Oh no,” Their parents gasped, worried. The boys had _said_ they were okay, this _didn’t_ sound ‘okay’.

 

“We don’t know if it is a _temporary_ thing and we just gotta get used to all this, or if we’ll always feel this anxious and won’t sleep properly again’…I hate not knowin’ what is goin’ on!” Danny grumbled.

 

“There there son, I’m sure Princess Unikitty will figure somethin’ out, she is a very smart woman.” Their mom came over and patted Danny on the arm. Daniel squeezed his hand and leaned into his shoulder. Ma smiled at the sight of her boys comforting one another.

 

“Yea, I am hopeful she will figure it out. Nice as this is we…would like to just be back as we were born, if we could help it.” Daniel sighed, also tired.

 

There was a pause but then their Ma gasped, “My stars, you boys said you didn’t eat dinner yet, yea? You must be starving! Here were all are chatterin’ away - ”

 

Pa laughed, realizing this too. “Yea let’s get some food into ye both.”

 

They _were_ very hungry and it was not helping on top of the tiredness. They took a seat at the kitchen table and watched their parents fuss about to getting a big bowl of leftover stew from the fridge. Tasty homemade pot roast with steak, potatoes, carrots, and onions. A staple meal they were used to from childhood.

 

“You don’t need help, Ma?” Good cop piped up, hands folded neatly. Danny craned around to look too.

 

“No no you dears stay right there. So funny to make up two bowls for you though,” She laughed.

 

Their Pa came and sat with them, placing their forgotten cups of apple juice back in front of them. His robotic leg gave a noticeable _wrrrring_ as he took a seat.

 

Used to it was he was now, the prosthetic leg Metalbeard and Lucy made for their Pa still reminded the boys every time of that horrible day when Lord B had lost all sense and pushed them to the brink of their loyalty.  
  
Bad Cop especially - he basically refrained from looking at it at all. His Pa lost his leg because of _him_ , between being half delirious from Good Cop being silenced, and so blindly following his superior, he believed him when he said his parents were part of the dangerous master builders…and went through with using the building anesthetizing 'Kragle' agent to neutralize them before the robots threw them into a holding tank...

 

How could he have had more faith in that then his own parents? And how could he fail his brother? He knew there was no way out of that situation once it started. Knew there was no way to fight President Business’s authority. Daniel had tried to protect him that time, kept to the forefront like Business wanted. That was his role, _his role_ …Daniel shouldn’t have done that. He should have fought him harder, taken back control. Heck, he should have fought back against Business, _really_ fought him. But that wasn’t what Bad Cop was used to, nor was it that easy. He had been so conditioned, between knowing about his superior’s OCD and having seen him at his worst, to the fact that his word was law, that the very thought of talking back to him made Bad Cop physically sick.

 

And then he had to keep carrying out those orders for three days chasing down ‘The Special’ and the core of master builders, feeling alone, in every sense of the word. Feeling like he’d failed everyone he loved. He’d lost his brother, hurt his parents, been betrayed by his superior…his only sense of self worth left being feeling like if he could finish his mission, regain his superior’s good graces and maybe appease him so he’d see how out of control he’d become, somehow that would fulfill the gaping hole in himself. Somehow…

 

He knew it wouldn’t, but he had dragged himself on anyway.

 

_Feared, hated, failure, empty, alone…_

“Here you are,” His Ma’s voice snapped Danny out of his thoughts. A bowl of hot stew was in front of him. He looked up. Daniel…Daniel was there. His hand was warm, yea, under the table…their hands were still clasped.

 

Good Cop pet his fingers over his counterpart’s. He could tell he was shaken, “Hey, eat something buddy, you’ll feel better. I’m…out of it too.” From the look on his face Danny could imagine he might have been thinking back to similar things.

 

Bad Cop nodded. Oh what he’d give to hear that reassuring voice back in his head where it belonged. Feeling his counterpart’s hand in his own was great, but it just wasn’t the same as the usual mental bond they shared…or hearing the other’s voice in there to snap each other out of dark thoughts.

 

“Thanks Mum,” Danny tried a smile for her, but without his sunglasses, it was quite obvious to see the emotion in his eyes.

 

She leaned down and hugged him tight, “Oh my poor dears,” She pat his back, then reached out her hand to Daniel’s shoulder, which wasn’t far away, “Just when you were settling into your new job and everythin’ was going so well.”

 

Good Cop leaned in to join the hugging. “No I know,” He bit his lip, “But it will be okay. We’ll get through this too one way or another.”

 

“That’s the spirit,” Their Pa grinned, “You boys can do anythin’ together.”

“Yea,” Daniel smiled through glassy eyes, but it was obvious he believed that statement wholeheartedly.  
  
  
The stew was amazing as they remembered it, and both men had seconds. Their Ma commented jokingly how ‘that stew was supposed to last a few days!’ but really she did not mind at all.  
  
They were exhausted though and could not stay much longer, even though the offer to stay for a game of scrabble was highly tempting.  
  
“Next time Mom! Haha,” Daniel grinned.

  
  
It was pitch dark outside as they suited up to ride home. Their parents came out and gave them both kisses on the cheek.

  
“Ma I’m almost 40 years old…” Danny groaned.  
  
Daniel laughed at his grumpy look. He knew he didn’t _really_ mind but…well he had ‘appearances' to keep.

  
  
“You’re never too old for kisses from your parents.” She huffed, “You’ll just have to handle it.”

“Come’on dear let’s not embarrass the boys any more than usual, eh?” Pa tried to drag her inside.  
  
Danny licked his lips and came over straight away and pulled him into a hug, sighing deeply. Everyone quieted down. “You’re not an embarrassment dad, never…” He whispered.  
  
  
 _ I’m the embarrassment, you two are guardian angels_, Danny thought.  
  
  
Pa paused for just a moment then gently hugged his boy back.  
  
Danny got his helmet’s shield visor from the saddlebag; much as he could get about in the city at night in his favored sunglasses he couldn’t drive the dark roads of the country in them, but he also didn’t want bugs in his eyes. Daniel took his sunglasses to keep in his pocket, and teased him as they took off.  
  
“Well, that went…alright I think. No heart attacks yea?” Danny said as they drove.  
  
“Yea, ha!” Daniel replied, glancing to the night sky above to enjoy the sight of the stars – you couldn’t see that much in the city.  
  
They finally got back home to their apartment…Daniel flopped onto the couch and curled up like he was just going to sleep there.  He was so tired. Danny yawned and rustled him, ‘threatening’ that he’d carry his lazy ass to the bed if he had to. As usual Bad Cop was slightly more coherent at a late hour. He heard the answering machine beep though – and it drew his attention.  
  
Daniel peeked his head over the couch as he heard Danny click the ‘listen to message’s button. The machine’s recording crackled over its little speakers -

  
“Are you two out getting doughnuts? I already called the station and they said you went home early so where are you!? Anyway! I am _super excited_ I have some ideas to try and I need you both back at my rainbow lab, pronto! I already told the precinct it was official Cloud Cuckoo Land business so just come’on by first thing tomorrow! See ya later gators!”

  
“Was that the Princess?” Good Cop blinked with heavy eyelids.  
  
“Who else would end with _‘see ya later gators?’_ or talk that chipper?”  
  
“Heh, true.”  
  
Danny grabbed his counterpart’s hand and pulled him up, “Ug are you getting heavier?”  
  
“You ate more stew then ME!” Daniel retorted sleepily as he was dragged off to bed.  
  
“Come’on we need sleep if we’re gonna be guinea pigs tomorrow.”  
  
“Lotta good it’ll do, not like we’re feelin’ any more rested…” Daniel sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed, then flopped his back flat onto it, not bothering to remove a single article of clothing.  
  
Danny groaned and undressed, then got to taking off Daniel’s boots for him, “I’ll be darn happy when I can just take over and get us ready for bed like usual, cause you do not function at this hour, I swear ta’ god.”  
  
“Mmm hum,” Good Cop mumbled half asleep, “Hey not _always_ …”

  
“ _Often_ ,” Danny tossed his counterpart's boots aside and then shoved his legs onto the bed. “You gonna least take off your jacket or am I gonna have to do that too?”

Daniel sat up, yawned, and then flopped back down.  A second later he got a pillow smacked into his face.

  
“HEY!” Daniel flailed, jolting up.

  
“I’m not sleepin' next to creaky, hot leather now GIT!” 

Good Cop picked up his own pillow and threw it right back.  
  
  
Soon it was an all out pillow war.

  
Thankfully Daniel did get his jacket off before they fell down with exhaustion, falling asleep with the blankets all askew.  
  
  
They had a lot to do tomorrow.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I settled on what kind of bike the boys have in my mind, least their main one Danny likes to ride (they might have a second who knows? c: ). a 1982-ish Yamaha Maxim (or Virago) 750 with extended pillion back rest and handlebars. [ I saw this bike while out camping and took some photos to share [x]](http://lithefider.tumblr.com/post/92438640469/cell113-said-oh-my-freaking-god-is-that-a-90s)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benny goes to collect the cops to take them to Cloud Cuckoo land - Unikitty's got an idea to explore how to put the cops back together. However, the two cops are growing more tired with each day though from lack of sleep and emotional exhaustion at their separated state.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are reading my other fic and remember how the cops opened up to Benny and they all chatted about each other over some drinks – that did not occur in the back story to this fic. Think of this as a mildly AU future to that fic. I wanted to have no pre-established friendships in this one so I could explore different connections (like the cops opening up to Emmet and Wyldstyle first in this one). :) Though as you might have noticed basically everything else is back canon. Just wanted to make that clear!
> 
> Also sorry for the big delay in updates, been super busy and also I take time to reread over chapters many times to self-proof and edit them, but know this fic has a resolution in mind (and is 2/3 to that) and will be finished this winter for sure. :)

Good Cop was awoken from his dreamless sleep by a rapping on their apartment door.

  
He blinked with a bleary expression. His counterpart’s eyes were still closed. Bad Cop was harder to rouse when he was exhausted. They had ended up sleeping tangled face to face.  
  
Daniel wasn’t sure if he imagined the sound or not till he heard the knocking again. He softly groaned and sat up, uncurling from their mess of limbs. He yawned and stretched.

 The clock said...7am. Really? Who would be knocking so loud at this hour?

“Buddy…wake up.” He said tiredly. He rocked his counterpart, putting a hand to his shoulder.  
  
Danny twitched slightly, and mumbled intelligibly.  
  
“Danny, hey hey hey…Buddy - ” Daniel pestered him, papping him this time on the face and rasping fingers over his stubble.

 

He didn’t wake up but did steal the other’s hand to use like cuddling onto a stuffed animal.

  
“Danny someone is _knocking_ come o - ”

 

“WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS!” Benny suddenly appeared in the open bedroom door.

 

“AHHHHhhh!” Good Cop yelped in surprise.

“ _AHHHhh_! Ahhh what _what_ \- !?” Danny bolted upright, brandishing his pillow for a weapon.  

  
Benny jumped with the noise all of a sudden - his body hanging in mid air like it forgot to come back down. He switched his helmet’s protective yellow visor off so they could see his face and hear him directly and not through his communicator. “ **Woah** woah man calm down haha. I’m sorry to shock you…” He grimaced, but was laughing softly at the sight of Bad Cop in his tank top using a pillow like he would a chair.  It was pretty hilarious. Also they JUST fit on that bed... they were _sharing_ one? All this time? Heck he could have loaned them a spare air mattress if they didn’t have one.  
  
The men on the bed breathed and calmed down. Good Cop took the pillow and patted Danny as if he was saying ‘ _hey, calm down cowboy, you might hurt somebody.’_

“Benny! You don’t just come in people’s doors like that!” Danny barked, thinking ‘ _but didn’t I lock it_?'  
  
“OH the door was locked so I came in the window.”

Both the cops stared at Benny, their faces clearly reading _‘that doesn’t make it better’_.  
  
  
“Why are you here at such an hour?” Daniel asked.  
  
“Unikitty was _pretty_ insistent about getting a lot done today, so she sent me to pick you guys up bright and early.”

“Mmmhumm, you and her both have a problem with waiting for people to answer the door...” Danny grumbled huskily, eyes drooping. Adrenaline had him now though, so there was no falling asleep again.  
  
Daniel gave a small smile to Benny like he meant well.  
  
Benny bit his lip. He was no idiot, he was trying to be playful but now he was worried he’d really upset them. His feet touched down to the floor and he put his hands behind his back. “I’m sorry I got carried away…I’ll…go wait outside. I’m parked on the heli-pad on the roof -” He turned and headed out.  
  
“Benny! Hey wait.” Good Cop spoke up.

  
Benny poked his head back in.

 

“Wait in the living room, ok? Just close the door we need to get ourselves together.”

  
Benny smiled and nodded, then closed the door.  
  
Danny flopped back to the bed and put the pillow on his head with a growly moan.  
  
“None of that buddy, it’s go time.” Daniel plucked the pillow up right away.  
  
“My head hurts.”

 

“Mine does too but you don’t see me grumping about, hummm?” Daniel sighed, his tone not only teasing - he actually sounded exasperated and terse about it.  
  
Danny turned to look up at him from where he lay on the bed like he was quite shocked to hear Daniel losing his chipper morning tone. “The dreamless nights must really be gettin’ to you too…”

 

“Of course they are,” he whispered back, voice serious, “You think I’m immune to headaches sometimes I swear.”

 

“You’re just too darn optimistic. I figure you’re immune to anythin’ that could dampen your mood,” Danny chuffed.

 

“Well you always seemed invincible when you were bouncin’ about going after master builders,” Daniel replied as he slid off the side of the bed and stood up.  
  
Bad Cop reached out and snagged the other’s hand, using it to help him drag himself up. “It’s only been _eight days_ but it feels like an eternity,” he muttered.  
  
“You’re tellin’ me…”

 

They were mentally _exhausted_ ; and it wasn’t just the lack of sleep. They were used to taking turns and having moments of downtime; accustomed to doing certain tasks, retreating when faced with something that was the other’s strength. No to mention, they longed so badly to feel that mental comfort of the other they were used to. Nice as their consoling touch was to each other, the hugging, the hand holding, the sitting snuggled up next to one another, it just…wasn’t the same. A piece of them was missing.    
  
Danny’s face fell forward and his ear rested against his counterpart’s chest. He sighed after listening for a moment. “I miss our heartbeat…”

Daniel felt his chest hitch with emotion and pet his hands through Danny’s mussed hair. “…Me too buddy, me too.”            

 

Benny meanwhile sat in the living room –

 

\- a room he’d only briefly seen in passing. He was amusing himself with the paper on the coffee table. He read the funnies – though he had noticed it was turned to the police blotter when he picked it up. He then pawed through a small pile of books after he read all the funnies. _Starship Troopers_ , _The Stars my Destination_ (there was a bookmark in it like it was in progress), Ed McBain 87th precinct ‘ _The Big Bad City’ and ‘Eight Black Horses’_. He could totally see the procedural cop novels, but they also liked sci-fi? He started reading the back of _The Stars my Destination_ as it looked older and Benny loved old sci-fi…  
  
“Hey,” A voice broke Benny out of his engrossment in thumbing through the book.  
  
“Yea?” He whirled his head around, though it was easy as he was floating just above the couch cross legged at this point so half his body turned too.  
  
It was Daniel, he was poking his head out of their bedroom and was wearing a towel, “ ’ey buddy, we are going to shower but we’ll be right out, okay? The Princess won’t have a heart attack will she?” He chuckled.

“Ah yea, should be fine I guess,” Benny laughed in reply.  
  
“Ohhh that’s a good one, we’re not done with it yet though,” Daniel said when he saw what was in Benny’s hands. “We were reading it before the accident and have not really picked it up much since. Reading novels is just not the same as we’re _used_ to…”  
  
Benny wondered for a moment how they read ‘together’ but he instead just replied with, “I didn’t know you guys liked sci-fi! You ought to recommend some to me; I’m always up for new stuff. Especially fun OLD stuff.”

“That is a great idea! I’d love that! That one yer holdin’ is a bit dark in spots though, would you like that?” Daniel tilted his head.  
  
“I’m a chipper guy but I’m not a baby you know,” Benny made a face at him.  
  
Good Cop smiled, nodding like he knew exactly that feeling.  
  
“You comin’ or what? The water is running,” Danny called.  
  
“Whoopsie! I lost track of time. But yea, be right back!” He disappeared and closed the door.  
  
Benny was left alone again. He did a double take as he thought, _“and they shower together too?”_ He thought this strange for a moment until he realized they did everything ‘together’ before this whole alchemy accident business, yea? They _shared a body_ and all. He sat for a while turning this over in his mind with curiosity, but then got back to the book in his hands.  
  
The cops didn’t take too long as per their word, but Benny was already a chapter into the book and floating well over the couch at this point, laying in mid air.  
  
“Hummm,” Bad Cop smirked, seeing this as they walked out. Good Cop giggled from where he stood next to him.  
  
“Oh!” Benny looked over and re-righted himself, “Heh sorry I had nothin’ else to do, I didn’t take out your bookmark…”

  
“Its fine buddy,” Daniel nodded.  
  
Benny noted their matching outfits. Seemed like black, button up, short sleeved cop style shirts. Casual, but still pretty clean cut. “You guys look nice. Good shower?”  
  
“Uhhh yea, we needed it, our head was killin’ us this morning,” Danny groaned. Then realized how weird that must have sounded… “I mean, you know what I meant.”

 

“We both had headaches, yea.” Daniel confirmed.  
  
Benny could understand well enough. They still thought as _one person_. He had talked to Emmet and Lucy and heard about their not so successful mall trip. They didn’t give a ton of details, but what he did know is they seemed to be inseparable.

 

“You know I saw how you two were crammed on your bed like that, I have a guest air mattress if you need to borrow it, for as long as you need.” The spaceman offered.  
  
“Aww that’s sweet of ye,” Daniel answered, “Thanks, but…no thanks. We’re okay.”

“Yea the bed isn’t the cause of the problems, we fit well enough,” Danny said.  
  
Benny floated closer and touched his feet down, looking at their clasped hands. “Okay, long as you say so.”

  
“Do we have time for breakfast?” Daniel seemed like he very much wanted breakfast.  
  
“Unikitty didn’t give me an _exact time_ just - well you know when she gets an idea in her head haha.” Benny laughed, “She can get excited as I am about building spaceships.”  
  
Bad Cop gave a grunt like saying, ‘ _you got that damn right._ ’

  
“Alright, then breakfast it is!” Daniel was already pulling his counterpart into the kitchen.  
  
Benny floated after them and sat at their little kitchen table.

 

“I have just the thing, it won’t take too long,” Daniel said as he turned on the oven to preheat, and then opened the fridge and took out one of those prepackaged dough rolls. Danny prepped a pan as Daniel gingerly popped the pressurized package. He jumped as it ‘exploded’. He breathed afterward, “That startles me EVERY time!”

 

“It does, he ain’t kiddin’,” Danny said matter-of-factly.  
  
“OOhh are those cinnamon rolls?” Benny perked when he smelled the cinnamon in the dough as Daniel arranged them in the pan.

“Yea! I prefer to make things from scratch but this is good in a jiffy.” Daniel said. Danny meanwhile was setting a pot of coffee to percolate as his counterpart put the rolls in the oven. They both came and sat with Benny at the table in unison. They butted up their chairs next to one another.  
  
“Ug, Unikitty is going to owe us for makin’ you get us up like this.” Danny yawned.  
  
“He doesn’t seem to be a morning person,” Benny fake whispered to Daniel.  
  
Bad Cop eyed them both, but Good Cop replied after a small laugh, “Yea he isn’t. Mornings are more my thing. But we…both have not been sleepin’ well so that is most of it right now. We are used to getting up early for our duties but it’s been increasingly hard all week to even get up on time for _those_.”  
  
“Well it’s not from cramming into the bed, so I assume cause of the accident?”

 

“Of course,” Danny rolled his eyes.  
  
“No I mean, like it physically hurt you both somehow? You were supposed to keep the Princess updated on anything that might be a physical issue. Why is it affecting your sleep?”

 

“We’re not in physical ‘pain’ just…well…we haven’t been sleeping well because of the split, plain and simple.” Daniel said.

  
“We’ll be sure to explain it to her,” Danny rubbed his shoulders like they were stiff, and his tone was implying like it was not exactly something they wanted to talk about.

Benny paused considering his words. The cops stayed silent like they were considering him back. The timer Daniel had set beeped as it notified them of 5 minutes left to the bake time.

 

“I didn’t mean to hit a touchy subject…and I’m sorry about getting you up so early I didn’t realize you were not sleeping well and - ”

 

Danny sighed deeply, and spoke over Benny to stop him, “ **Ben**. Ben…It’s just we…are private people. We don’t exactly -….we’ve never talked to anyone else about how we are ‘cept with family until this accident blew everythin’ apart and now it just feels like everythin’ is out in the open in the most uncomfortable way possible.”

 

Daniel continued, “How we were born was a bit _unique_ , and it’s not really somethin’ that is easy for us to describe to others. The accident has thrown us into somethin’ we never thought would happen or be something we’d need to deal with.”

 

Benny nodded. They seemed like the closest of bothers. Benny had two sisters so he could understand _that_ part, but he didn’t _share a body_ with his sisters, so he could figure it was indeed a bit more complicated than that. “I won’t pry. But know I’d also like to understand better.”  
  
The two cops each gave a look of thanks for the understanding. Daniel spoke up though, “Thanks Benny. You know, we are still just in shock everyone trusted us enough to accept us as the chief of police after what we did under Lord B…so that means a lot to us.”  
  
Benny smiled. There had indeed been a very awkward period for all after Emmet talked down Lord Business. Benny had not fully trusted Danny / Daniel right away just like the rest of his master builder friends, but he believed in second chances and after knowing how much the cops had been manipulated too so he certainly could begin to forgive, especially when they two of them had been working so hard to right the wrongs.

 

The spaceman was about to respond when the timer went off.  
  
  
Daniel jumped up and over to the oven. Danny turned to watch him to see if he needed help even though he knew he didn’t.  
  
“Those smell really good,” Benny bit his lip, watching as Good Cop used a butter knife to cover them in icing.  
  
Daniel smiled and licked the tasty icing off his fingers as he finished garnishing them.  
  
“Yea he only buys the good stuff,” Danny said, getting up as he did so.  
  
“Darn right!” Daniel confirmed. He brought the pan over on a trivet and placed it on the table. “Okay let’s not keep the Princess waitin’ !”  
  
While he had been talking Danny got himself a cup of coffee for himself and a cup of milk for Daniel. “Did you want something to drink?” He glanced at Benny over his sunglasses.  
  
“That coffee you made smells good,” He replied, “I can make myself a cup.”

Benny poured a cup and put crème and sugar in it. He watched Daniel take out the first bun, which was a messy affair. He put it on his plate and then jokingly griped his fingers were all messy again even though he used a serving fork and everything. Danny groaned and shook his head, then sipped his coffee with a smirk. Good Cop licked off the icing…meanwhile Bad Cop scritched his hair and asked for just half of a bun for himself, like he couldn’t manage a whole one.    
  
“Too sweet for you?” Benny asked as he sat down.  
  
“A bit,” Danny replied.  
  
“I thought you liked these ones!” Daniel pouted.  
  
“I do – I do just not in such a large amount today,” Danny used his fork to simply take a piece of the one already on his counterpart’s plate.  
  
They tried to eat quickly and get on their way.  
  
  
...

 

“I told you to not drive so FAST,” Bad Cop moaned as Benny docked at Cloud Cuckoo Land’s travel port.

“That WAS slower!” Benny said as he popped the hatch.  
  
Good Cop laughed, “Pot calling the kettle black.”

“I drive _strategically_.” Danny retorted as he helped his counterpart out of his seatbet, “And spaceships fly even faster then our cruiser in jet mode…”  
  
Daniel laughed again, patting him on the back.

 

“What took you so long!” Unikitty seemed to appear out of nowhere – sparkles and stars flying in all directions as she chided them.  
  
“You!” Danny pointed at Unikitty as he stumbled out of the spaceship with Daniel right behind, “What’s the big idea getting us up like that?!”

“I thought you were used to getting up early for your job?” She tilted her head with hands on her hips, “Early bird gets the worm! And we got lots of worms to chase.”

“Danny, she doesn’t know we’ve not been sleeping well we haven’t told her,” Daniel whispered to him.

Bad Cop took a few deep breaths to try and calm his nerves. He squeezed his counterpart’s hand, “Yea yea yer right…”

  
“What was that??” Unikitty leaned in as they walked up with Benny.

“Nothin’…” Danny grumbled. Now his head was hurting all over again. He just wanted to sink to the background and let Daniel handle the explaining, but he couldn’t do the former. They had both been stuck for eight days straight at the reigns, something they had never experienced before.  
  
“We just have some updates is all. What is this big idea you have that we heard about on the answering machine last night?” Daniel asked, feeling similarly to his brother. He was tired and distressed too, just dealing with it better on the outside.  
  
“I got some help waiting in my lab, so let’s go I’ll explain on the way!”

 

As they strolled over across the main rainbow-tiled walkway she explained how she wanted to do a mental examination of sorts, which involved entering the mind. It was something usually only master builders did during meditation, but with the help of multiple skilled master builders to perform the task it should not be an issue to do on even a non-builder.

 

“And that’s…safe?” Danny asked for the both of them, not sounding too sure.  
  
“I’ve done it a few times, it’s nothing to worry about,” Benny tried to reassure.  
  
They entered the doors to Unikitty’s lab. Everything was colorfully decorated and had soft rounded corners. A secretary at the door greeted them with a nod – her mouth was preoccupied with a lollipop.  
  
“Oh yes, nothing to worry about!” The princess waved a hand, “Long as we keep you two out of each other’s minds, I am unsure of what effect _that_ might have.”  
  
  
“What?” The cops interjected in unison.  
  
“Why?” Daniel asked by himself afterward.

“I just don’t want the extra variable – it _could_ do nothing of harm …or it could totally destabilize your psyches and explode the copy body we made during the original alchemy that caused all this. As you two shared the same body and brain I really have no idea what either of your mind spaces might look like compared to a usual person.”  
  
  
She paused and glanced at them, horrified expressions on their faces behind their respective eyewear. Daniel swallowed hard and felt his stomach turn. HE was in the copy body and didn’t like that description one bit. He was mildly reassured as he felt Danny’s strong hand squeezing his own and taking the lead in scowling at the Princess.  
  
“Oh don’t look at me like that – science is all about discovery - ”      
  
“But you are 100% sure this won’t harm Daniel?!” Danny barked.  
  
“I _said_ long as we don’t have him accompanying when we check out your mind space should be fine – yea! He won’t even be involved how could he get hurt?” Unikitty snapped back.

Bad Cop quieted down as that did make sense. He was not thinking very rationally about it. All he knew is he bristled when he even heard the notion of the alchemy created body Daniel was in ‘destabilizing’ or anything of the sort.

“What’s all the yelling?” Emmet’s voice made the cops turn their heads.

There waiting in the lab was Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Metalbeard.  

“Hey guys!” Benny waved and zoomed over. Metalbeard especially gave him hearty smile like they had not seen each other in a while.

Oh so this was the help Unikitty mentioned, thought Daniel. He came up right to Emmet and gave him a hug. Danny respectively went up to Wyldstyle and she gave him a bro hug.  
  
“The Princess was explaining what we were going to do and…well we did not like all the possible outcomes.” Daniel grimaced and whispered to Emmet.  
  
Emmet looked confused for a moment but the Princess started talking so he didn’t have time to ask about it.  
  
“OKAY, so I know I briefed you guys but I still need to finish explaining to the chiefs here!” Unikitty bounced with enthusiasm and more sparkles flew off of her, one of them smacking Benny in the face. Thankfully he had his visor down and merely flinched.

After again reassuring nothing would happen to Good Cop as they were leaving him out of this mind excursion, everyone else but the Captain and Benny prepped for the mind excursion. Too many people should not go in at once.  
  
“Another reason we got the extra help here is to give you some company, Daniel.” Unikitty told him as the others took a seat on a cushy rainbow floor mat.  
  
“That’s nice of ya, yea I’d hate to be alone out here with you all doing your meditation mind meld thing.” He chuckled, locking eyes with his seated counterpart, wishing they could be holding hands right then.  
  
“I mean, you can’t even really be in the same room.” The Princess bit her lip. “I know that isn’t what you wanna hear as I know how you two are attached at the hip you guys are but it - ”  She paused as it was quite visible how uneasy both of them seemed to look at what she was saying.  
  
“W…why not?” Daniel felt his chest tighten.  
  
“Doing this warps matter in the immediate area, specifically the stuff that makes up our consciousness. I don’t want to even risk harming you, your mind, or anything, as we don’t even know all the details of what is keeping the body you are in stable.”

The Princess was a top master builder and if she thought that then it must be for a good reason. Daniel slowly nodded, and felt a reassuring hand on his back from the taller cyborg Captain, and the shorter spaceman master builder.  
  
Before agreeing Daniel darted from them and over to his cross-legged sitting counterpart. They hugged tightly, nuzzling into each other.  
  
“I’ll be fine. And apparently long as you are a safe distance you will be too, ye hear?” Danny whispered to him, like it was something he’d normally have been saying in their head to each other.

Daniel smiled for him, showing his optimism this will all lead to them being fixed, “Yea. This will work and everyone will figure out how to put us back cause of this. Good luck buddy,” He reluctantly pulled away and went back over to Metalbeard and Benny.  
  
  
“Come’on,” Benny smiled trying to cheer him up.  
  
“Safe sailin’ missy.” Metalbeard saluted the Princess. He had no doubts in her abilities.  
  
“Aye aye captin’!” She saluted back and kneeled down on all fours with the others as Daniel was led out of the room and towards the interior courtyard.  
  
  
The cops kept their eyes locked long as they could.  
  
  
Danny felt his chest tighten as Daniel went out of view. This was as worse, if not more so, than at the mall. He seemed to stare off into space and lose all focus.  
  
Emmet and Wyldstyle looked to him. They knew firsthand about the uneasiness in this for them.  
  
“Hey, it’s only for a little bit, and this is so we can find out how to get you two back as you were, yea?” Emmet smiled, sounding hopeful.  
  
“Hey, snap out of it. You’re strong and can handle this. Focus on the mission at hand.” Wyldstyle said, sounding authoritative.

Bad cop seemed to respond to Wyldstyle’s no nonsense style. _Mission_. A mission he could handle. A task with a beginning and an end. The end of this assignment meant him and Daniel back together, and feeling that goal in reach made the separation seem bearable. And much as Lord Business’s grasp was behind him now, his conditioning to follow orders were still quite engrained. He felt a safety in them.  
  
  
He snapped out of it, and looked at the three master builders sitting there with him. He straightened up his back and readjusted his legs. “You can count on me.” He seemed a lot calmer now and like he was ready to begin.  
  
“Good.” Wyldstyle confirmed, glad the tactic worked on him like she thought it might.  
  
“Okay let’s get started, everyone comfortable?” Unikitty grinned.  
  
“Ready!” Emmet put on his game face.

“Roger.” Wyldstyle cracked her fingers.

Danny nodded with a serious face, sunglasses glinting.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unikitty, Emmet, and Wyldstyle must preform the ever precarious master builder technique of ‘entering a mind space’ on Bad Cop. They want to find out what exactly they are dealing with if they are to fix the cop bros and put them back together as they were born. Mind spaces are tricky things.

“Again with the hand holding…” Bad Cop muttered as everyone had their eyes closed, hands joined in a circle. He was thinking how what got them into this mess started this way too.  
  
“Shhhh, the contact helps the connection.” Unikitty whispered, not breaking form or opening her eyes.  
  
“Everyone but Danny knows the drill.” Wyldstyle said like she was well versed in this excursion. She had been most closely taught by Vitruvius in mind space probing. “Danny – you need to relax, clear your mind, and put down any barriers. Think of it like we are all boarding a plane, and we’re taking a trip into your mind. We need a clear landing strip to come enter. You need to be receptive and calm.”

Danny thought how that was pretty much the exact opposite of his being to everyone except his counterpart. His counterpart helped him with things like being calm, open, and loosening up. It was like how he helped Daniel be confident, strong, and responsible. It was something they never fully understood until they had been separated. He was quite sure none of the master builders helping him right then understood either.  
  
But, he was starting to consider Lucy someone he trusted, and respected, as a friend. Listening to her say it helped a lot.  
  
He was on a mission, this was for Daniel. The sooner they got this over with the sooner they could be back together, so he did his best to do everything asked of him. He took deep breaths and tried to relax. Though he was supposed to keep his mind clear, before he did he attempted to aid in the calming by thinking of some happy memories with his brother, because that was pretty much the only way he could reliably calm himself.  
  
  
A trip to the beach with family as a kid, playing in the waves and building Bricksburg sandcastles. The calming sound of the wind over the waves. Daniel loved the little butterfly shells in the surf and how they felt digging into the wet sand he’d pick up. Danny coaxed and encouraged him to go into the intimidating surf, but he still would end up taking over to make it past the white water. Daniel would squeal with delight when he switched in and got to feel the bobbing of the waves, and they both would be laughing as they got to ride one in.  
  
A road trip to Atlantis as part of a semester away while in the Academy. A few days out on the bike just him, his brother and the open road. They’d drive deep into the night and look at the stars at rest stop pull offs.  The stars were so bright away from the city. At Atlantis, Daniel _loved_ all the sea creatures. He got to take patrols in an EV-suit, which was meditative _and_ awesome. Both of them so young and eager to please, ready for anything the world threw at them -  
  
  
“Hey, I said clear that mind, I hear a lotta chatter in there.” Lucy piped up.  
  
Bad Cop grumbled, “I’m sorry if you want calm I can’t just think of _nothin’_ off the bat.”  
  
“Yea Lucy,” Emmet nudged her, smiling softly.  
  
Wyldstyle could feel that smirk even though she couldn’t see it.  
  
“You were thinking of your family and brother,” Unikitty chimed in. She felt Danny’s hand tense, so she quickly giggled and added, “Don’t worry we aren’t probing your memories. But anything you bring to the forefront will be seen to some degree. That’s why it is better to clear your mind.”  
  
Bad Cop swallowed, feeling suddenly even more uncomfortable with this. He was a private person, and he rather liked the privacy shared between him and his counterpart.  Their mind was a safe haven only they shared. But the master builders could see his memories now…?  
  
“Hey man, it’s okay. It’s not a clear connection like this, more like…hearing things on a radio station that is fuzzing out. I didn’t see anything private. Though that beach surf sounded awesome, you gotta take us to that one sometime, eh? Hahha.”  
  
Danny huffed softly, thinking Emmet’s dopey openness was the only thing making his privacy being violated not quite so sharp edged, like dulling the jab to his psyche.       
  
“I’ll try again,” Is all he could say, not wanting to cause options to elaborate on any other memory fragments they might have ‘heard’. Though he got the feeling it might only get worse as they actually got into his mind. He had no damn clue how that would feel or look…he just hoped it was worth it and led to them getting fixed.  
  
Danny’s breath shuddered as he exhaled. Task at hand, task at hand. He imagined the hand in his was Daniel’s. He let the memories melt away and he just tried to focus on that. _‘Calm, reassured, everythin’ is ok buddy. Open your mind like you would to Daniel. Just, all natural like, like breathin’. Yea just…breathe.’  
_  
He was expecting some kind of chanting from the master builders, or a tingling or jolt when the connection was made. But as Danny managed to clear his thoughts and make himself ready for the others to enter his mind, it was more like going to sleep, feeling the sensation of your body melt away from the conscious world.    
  
  
When he opened his eyes again, it wasn’t Cloud Cuckoo land.  
  
  
This had to be…in his mind? It certainly wasn’t a dream as they weren’t dreaming when they went to sleep separated as they were. And it felt different, more grounded and less random then a dream.      

 

It looked like the countryside outside Bricksburg.  Green grass, flowers, trees...but the day was cloudy, the blue sky turned gray, and his vision past perhaps thirty or forty yards away began fading into blackness, like only where he existed was lit to see. There was a country style home immediately to his right - only the house went up very tall, more so feeling like a wall, or a fortress. It was no ordinary house though, where the foundation should have been it melted into thick, gnarled roots, like it was a living thing planted into the ground.  
  
“Woah! Neat…” Emmet’s voice said.  
  
Danny whirled around and there with him was Emmet, Lucy, and Unikitty. All of them were in different clothes, perhaps another way to tell it was not reality.  
  
“We’re in your mind Danny. Does this seem familiar?” Unikitty asked.  
  
Danny took a moment to settle this realization, then responded, “Yea it’s similar to our childhood home. Very different though. Like a dream version of it.”

“Also I don’t think there’s a huge gorge in your front yard back home, yea?” Lucy turned and pointed behind them.

"Holy smokes," Emmet gasped when he turned around and saw it. "Woah watch it!" He grabbed at Lucy, making sure she did not teeter too close. She chuckled like it was cute how worried he was.

Where the mind space should have kept going, like most do in all directions, there was an abrupt _stop_ to the world. Like a cliff edge. And it was not a clean break. The edge was frayed, like the ground had been _ripped_ away. The tangled roots of the house stuck out into nothingness like they should have kept going and been entwined with the missing ground. Some were snapped and leaking glowing sap, dripping down into an endless, dark abyss. A telephone pole was bent crooked right at the edge, wires leading from the house broken and dangling over the chasm, occasionally giving off sparks where they bumped into the dirt.

  
Danny swallowed. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking at. Should he know what this all was? It did feel…familiar, and not just as a dreamscape echo of home, but he had no idea what any of it meant. What he did know was that looking at the damaged wires and ripped roots made him feel very uneasy.  

"Well this is interesting indeed..." Unikitty pointed to the drop off.

"Yea it is like...half of him is literally _ripped_ away." Wyldstyle gasped at the sight. This was not something Vitruvius ever told her about, that this could even happen to a mind space.  
  
“Well think of what happened,” Emmet said like it was obvious, “Doesn’t this make sense?”

“If each of the cops had their own mind space then we’d not see something like this Emmet. This is something very different.” She replied gravely.  
  
“Every mind has its own space, and I was _theorizing_ this might be the case with these two and this confirms why all my alchemy tests were highly ineffective - they aren't just two consciousness within one body, they are literally _sharing_ _one_ _mind space_. That is very interesting.”

Lucy saw how shocked Danny seemed at all this. "Always weird to see your own mind space, I know." Wyldstyle chuckled nervously, “You okay?”  
  
“Yea.” Danny inched away from the ledge and leaned against the house’s door. “I just don’t wanna be near that ledge.”

“I don’t blame you,” Emmet came over there with him.  
  
“What does all this mean?” Danny looked up at the Princess like she should elaborate. “Sharing a mind space? I mean, we share a body, and we are very connected, but…well I don’t know all this master builder voodoo magic you’re takin’ about so sorry if you’re gonna have to say it in layman’s terms for me, yea?” He said with gruff frustration.  
  
“It both complicates things and makes it easier, as now I am getting more ideas of what I need to do. However, I’ll be working like a brain surgeon, by the looks of all this.” She momentarily whipped on a pair of sparkly energy ‘latex’ gloves, which poofed away soon as the visual backup to her statement passed. “We should explore more before I elaborate. Think of this like an exploration of yourself. May we come in?” She gestured to the home’s door.

“Better then near that ledge..." Bad Cop said, voice a shaky. He put his hand on the doorknob, and the sound of multiple locks un-clicking being heard. He paused, surprised by the action he didn’t consciously perform.  
  
“Heh you must have a lot of mental safeguards.” Unikitty giggled.  
  
“I didn’t even put a key in the door,” Danny muttered, still not understanding.  
  
“This is not a real door, it’s a mental representation of a door, you ARE the key in your own mind space.” Lucy nodded.  
  
That made sense when they said it like that. And it was true he was a private person. He bit his lip and opened the door for them. Everyone followed him inside. The ledge and blackness was making everyone nervous and getting away from it was welcomed.  
  
Inside the house things were quite cozy.  It was fairly 'well furnished' and detailed for a mind space. When they walked in, it was not a living room or an entry way, but a bedroom. A bed was right up against the outside wall, positioned by a window. The sheets were messy and cold, like someone had left in a hurry and not been there in a while.

 

Bad Cop sat on the bed, feeling a hand over the sheets and taking in everything.

 

Meanwhile Emmet walked over to a dresser against the opposite wall, picking up one of many family photos on its surface. "Awww, Danny is this you as a kid?"

Bad Cop looked up, "Hey don’t touch anything!” He barked as a reflex, but seeing Emmet’s kicked puppy face as he placed the picture frame down carefully made the gruff old cop soften his tone. “Ah…umm…just be careful – ye hear? In that picture, that was actually Daniel at the time of the photo. He just wasn't wearin' his glasses. We didn't pick up that habit till we were around seven or eight years old. He always smiled best for mum and dad." He ran his hand over an old style curly corded telephone on the nightstand. Next to it was a bowl of small pebbles.  
  
Emmet looked over another photo frame to the right. There were two photos in it that were obviously taken one after another, both of a graduation day by the clothing. In one photo was Danny, in the other Daniel, wedged between their two parents. Danny/Daniel were taller than them by a few inches.  
  
“That was when I graduated from the police academy. I was top of my class, Ma and Pa were so proud…” Danny bit his lip. As he brought up the memories in his mind the photo in Emmet’s hands shifted and moved like a little television screen. Daniel smiled brightly saying ‘cheese!’ hugging around his parents. After the photo was snapped he switched glasses with the aviators hanging on his breast pocket and Danny stood up proudly with arms around each of his parent’s shoulders, smiling brightly, though you could always tell his smile from Daniel’s.  
  
“I didn’t…” Danny blinked as he saw that happen from across the room, “This more usual mind space stuff?”  
  
“Every mind space is different. Yours is very detailed, like you spend a lot of time here.” Unikitty said, picking up a photo frame of an eight year old Danny with a water gun. It too came to life as she picked it up, showing a summertime vacation memory.  
  
“But I’ve never been here.” He looked around at everything again, “But…you know, even though I've never done this entering my mind thing, this all is very familiar. And not just in that this is vaguely reminiscent of our parent's house."

 

"It makes sense!" Unikitty bounced over, putting the photo frame back on the dresser before she did. "Where do you go when your counterpart is in control of your body, eh? Describe it."

 

Danny gave a thoughtful expression, "It's just...my own ‘space’, in our head. I can’t see anything, but the darkness is cozy, warm, private. I can see and hear what Daniel is doing, but I also can tune it out if I choose, and just be alone wrapped in the darkness like a blanket..." He looked over the things around him, the window, the bed, the pebbles.

  
"In fact yes it feels much like this." He kneeled on the bed and opened the blinds on the window, then pushed out the panes. "It is like looking out a window from your bedroom. And to ignore the world outside, you shut it. I can take a nap comfortably....be alone...but I'm never _really_ alone here." He stared at the blackness outside the window. "At least, I shouldn't be."  
  
He picked up a pebble and tossed it out the window, and it fell out of view into the dark canyon. "You can't throw stones at windows that aren't there." He murmured.

 

Wyldstyle picked up the phone out of curiosity - there was no dial tone. "It was hard for me to imagine what this feels like for you Danny, but seeing it like this, it makes a lot more sense..."

 

Danny was leaning on the edge of the window sill, staring at the dangling wires. Frayed, damaged, and disconnected. He turned away, feeling sick, and closed the window and blinds.

 

"Seeing this does get us a better idea of what we are dealing with." Wyldstyle nodded, "Now we know that there is a concrete place where Daniel's consciousness should slip right into like a puzzle piece. That each of their mind space’s are more than a mental space, it’s a home."

"A home that’s been through an _earthquake_ ”, Emmet looked to the door, “All those…torn bits. It doesn't look super clean cut like a puzzle piece." He thought back to Daniel at the mall, how each of them was so uneasy and…broken. Seeing that mess outside made him wonder how they were functioning at all like this.

"True," Unikitty considered, "We'll have a lot of jagged, torn connections to make...it is a delicate, complex operation. This has turned from a build project into brain surgery! But we can do it!"

Danny was not sure he liked that analogy and he felt hand to his chest, "You think you guys can do it...?" He swallowed. Though to be honest, he was to the point he _would_ rather die then live like this, torn apart and slowly going mad.    

"This is not without risk of course, but I do think we can do it!" She looked to Emmet and Wyldstyle for confirmation.

"Yea! And Benny and Metalbeard will be happy to help too!" Emmet grinned.

"More builders the better, to spread out the mental work load." Unikitty nodded, "Everyone will just need some filling in, and time to prepare. We should be ready in about two, maybe three days."

Danny picked up the phone this time, putting it to his ear as he hunched sitting at the side of the bed. He let it settle into his lap as he seemed overtaken with emotion.  
  
Emmet suddenly felt like they were intruding, even though that was the point of the whole trip - to better understand Danny’s mind space. This was not just a mind space though; it seemed to be a home for his consciousness. That was why it was so well furnished and established. This was where Danny ‘lived’ while not in control of their body. He could imagine Good Cop had a similar house that fit right into the torn out part of the world, where all those disconnected wires and roots ought to go. They were mental neighbors, literally, and shared the same 'land line'.  
  
Unikitty felt the heaviness in the room too. She shuffled on her hooves and paws. “I’m going to go check out the damaged part of the ground outside for a few more minutes, but then we can prepare to leave. Just chill in here for a bit?”      

  
When Emmet and Wyldstyle turned back from nodding to the Princess, Danny was curled up on the bed holding the phone in his arms.  
  
Lucy hesitated then sat on the bed. “Do you want us to go outside with Unikitty? It wouldn’t be good for the mind connection if you were to get too…emotional.”  
  
Bad Cop sighed and was feeling like a private space was indeed violated with them in there. But their privacy had been violated and picked at all week so…this was just the icing on the cake and he felt like there wasn’t much he could do about it.  
  
“I just miss him so much…” Danny finally said, clutching the phone tighter.  
  
The lights in the room flickered.  
  
“I know you do,” Lucy bit her lip, thinking back to the mall trip and the things she learned about them. She’d thought she understood them so much better but it seemed now she was back to square one. Plus, it was still so strange to see a man she once feared so much being so vulnerable. “We’re going to put you guys back as you were born, we’re not going to give up on it. Now you gotta keep your cool, so we can leave the mind connection safely, you understand?”  
  
“We’re master builders. Fixin’ stuff is what we do!” Emmet said with his usual optimism, but it also was in his voice how much he was worried.  
  
Danny recollected his thoughts and sat up, looking at the phone one last time before putting it back on the receiver. There wouldn’t be a voice on the other end until he trusted them to put them back as they were. So strange for now his life in the hands of people he once hunted.  
  
  
“I’m okay.” He sighed to Wyldstyle and stood up.

The lights stopped flickering. Emmet and Lucy relaxed.  
  
  
“Hey!” Unikitty said, her voice muffled by the closed door, “Everything okay in here? I felt a ripple in the mental wavelengths.”  
  
“We ought to get goin’ soon I think,” Emmet grimaced.  
  
Danny sighed, “I’m sorry I’m not as used to all this ‘mind meditation’ and ‘staying level headed’ thing as ye masterbuilders. Especially with my counterpart gone from me this long…not exactly a recipe for calm.”  
  
“It’s alright Chief,” Emmet smiled and came over, and gave him a pat to the shoulder, “Let’s just get ready to leave, and get you back to Daniel, yea?”  
  
Bad Cop nodded and went to open the door.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Lucy said as he jiggled the doorknob.  
  
“It’s…it’s locked!” Danny looked back at them. “I thought I was the key?”  
  
“Lemme try it,” Emmet tried his hand at it, struggling.  
  
But it was indeed, not budging.  
  
“Emmet you know physical strength has no meaning in here right?” Lucy lowered her eyelids halfway.  
  
“What’s happenin’?” Danny’s calmness was starting to be replaced with panic. The lights flickered again, and this time the ground rumbled too.  
  
“Hey!” Unikitty tried opening the door from the outside. Also no luck, “Oh my gosh!”  
  
Lucy jumped on the bed and opened the blinds, but the window too, was locked.  
  
Unikitty looked at her through the window panes, “This might be bad.” Her muffled voice said.  
  
“Might be?!” Lucy struck back, “We’re trapped in Danny’s mental enclave, yea it might be bad!”  
  
“Mind fillin’ me in too there Luse?” Emmet sweated, “I’m still learning this mental stuff too ya know.”  
  
“I don’t WANT you guys trapped in here, hell I don’t want ye in here at all if I could help it. Why won’t it open to let me kick ye all out?”  
  
Lucy had a dawning and slowly glanced up at Bad Cop from her spot on the bed, “How do you usually get out of your mind space?”  
  
“I…I’d switch in with Daniel.” Danny said slowly, voice tense. He seemed to get the idea.  
  
“But you have no one to switch with right now.” Lucy looked out the window to the gorge and Unikitty bouncing about worriedly.  
  
“Not to mention, I’ve not been in here for a week. Maybe my mind, body, whatever, is holding on cause it knows all I’ve wanted all this time, is to be switchin’ in and out like usual. I’ve never been at the reigns this long.” Danny sat on the bed edge in shell shock. He put his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his hair. “Gosh I’m just so tired I can’t even think straight.” All he wanted to do was have Daniel there, them back as they should be, curl up on their bed, and dream for like 24 hours.  
  
“Tired? Not sleepin’ well?” Lucy piped up.  
  
Danny shook his head, “Not dreamin’ at night. Neither of us feel like we’re havin’ a full night’s sleep.” He licked his lips, “It’s just like when…around Taco Tuesday. When Business …silenced Daniel temporarily.   I - I didn’t dream those nights either. I’d…never been alone before.  I didn't even know if Daniel was goin' to come back then...” He felt his throat going dry.  
  
The ground gave another tremor. Emmet and Lucy seemed to feel it more than Bad Cop.  
  
Unikitty could hear them vaguely from her spot outside the window. “More info! You guys gotta tell me these details! If I’d known this sooner maybe I could have figured things out better!” She chimed with annoyance.  
  
“Unikitty, we kinda have a _situation_ here! Now is _not_ the time!” Lucy talked through her teeth, whirled around and banged on the window.  
  
Emmet kneeled down in front of Bad Cop, who seemed like he was in his own little world. “Hey, Danny, you…you gotta focus. You gotta calm down. You’re not alone right now, we’re here.  We're your friends, yea?” He tried to take his hands but he was repelled like a magnet of the same polarity.  
  
“Shit,” Wyldstyle jumped off the bed and studied the situation for a moment. Another menacing tremor urged her on to try something. She tried to ‘console’ Danny, “Chief! You hear me?! Snap out of it, you got a mission remember!”  
  
  
He didn’t reply.   
  
The air felt heavy and tense.  
  
  
She reached out, and her hand was able to settle over Danny’s, but soon as she did she -  
  
  
A bathroom?  
  
  
The air rippled as she turned, trying to orient herself. She looked down and saw a sink, blood dripping on the white porcelain basin that was sprinkled with shards of broken glass. Her knuckles were sore, she looked at her hand - they were bloody. She felt…exhausted, nauseous, dizzy…her head was pounding, and her throat raw from screaming or crying or...  
  
She looked up to the broken bathroom mirror, and instead of her own reflection it was…Danny’s. She was Danny wearing Daniel’s glasses.  
  
Recent burn scars were on his…her temples, bandages having obviously been ripped off. She felt over her face. She tried to smile. But it…wasn’t the smile she was looking for.  
  
“Everythin’ will be okay…buddy…” Tears started to sting her eyes and the attempted smile faded.  
  
“Daniel, Mummy, Daddy…” Her face crinkled up with emotion, “I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry. I tried, I failed you. I failed all’a you…I couldn’t protect you…I-I couldn’t even protect Daniel when I knew there was no way out for even you…you…” Her mind was swimming and quiet, so _quiet_. The quietness was _deafening_.  
  
She ripped the broken round glasses from her face and they went skittering across the tile floor with a sickening sound, “Daniel, G…I need you…I-I don’t know what to do without you…” She fell to the floor with her arms curled round herself, sobbing and lost, “I’m so sorry G. Please, please come back…you can’t be dead you just _can’t_. H-how could you die with me still livin’? It-it’s not _possible_. We’re supposed to die together someday, we’d joke about that, yea?  Old and grey and still on our motorcycle long as we can still walk. There’s n-no way our heart could beat without th’ other...”  
  
Her head fell to the floor and the whole world seemed to shift with her.  
  
The next thing she knew she was being shook awake. She lifted her head. She had been resting on a desk. This was an office, an office in Octan tower. Lord Business’s robots patrolled all around doing tasks. Next to her was a laptop, with various programmed orders and surveillance feeds.  
  
“Sir, no suspicious activity to report in sector 5, 6, or 7.” The robot who woke her up stated.  
  
“Thanks,” She said with tiredness. Gosh was she tired. Had she had a full night’s sleep? No, not for three days. She took a sip of coffee from her cup on the desk and put her feet up.  
  
  
Why was she doing this again?  
  
  
She looked down and taped to the upper corner of the laptop’s screen was a cut out photo – it was a photo of Daniel with his cheery smile and a croissant, posed like it had been a candid selfie.  
  
  
 _‘Maybe if I finish what we started…maybe it will bring you back.’_ She thought deliriously, even thought she knew that was just wishful thinking, maybe…she just needed something to hold on to – _‘I don’t know anymore if the master builders really are out to destroy the realms, or if they are dangerous, or if 'the special' really holds a secret super matter weapon…but I started this job with you, and…I’m going to finish it – with you. We never fail if we work together, eh buddy?’_     
  
  
Before she knew it she was humming and mumbling an old favorite Irish tune to herself, and not really paying much attention to her surveillance feeds on the lap top. Her chest choked up a bit, but she hid it, not wanting any of even the robots to see.  
  
 _Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling  
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side,  
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling,  
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide._  
  
This was a song Daniel would sing to her sometimes to calm or lull her to sleep, wasn’t it? Daniel loved this song. She imagined like it was Daniel singing it to her, and for a moment it eased the emptiness and exhaustion from her body.  
  
Her radio beeped, breaking her out of the song and back to reality. She picked it up, “Bad Cop.” She said robotically.  
  
“President Business wants you in his office!” What sounded like Velma’s voice chimed sickeningly sweet on the other end.  
  
She jumped up, “Copy that, thanks.” She said tiredly, not really caring, but if Business wanted her she had to comply. Her body racked with anxiety, worry about what was going to happen next. She was so out of it her normally keen senses didn’t notice the black hooded girl sneaking into her office right behind her…         
  
  
“Lucy!” A man jumped out in front of her in the hallway.  
  
She drew her laser pistol, “It’s the Special!” She barked, and called in her robot forces. Her emotions flared excessively and unreasonably, thinking how this man was the cause of Daniel being hurt! The reason he’d failed and now was in a state of what could barely be called living.  
  
“Lucy! I know that’s you.” His form wavered like a hologram, “With some direction from Unikitty I’ve been trying to get to you! You’re trapped in Danny’s memories!”  
  
“Don’t play games with me, master builder.” She sneered, “Your mind tricks won’t work on me!”  
  
Emmet advanced on her and she felt her rage flare even more. “One more move and I’ll shoot!”  
  
Emmet was told him interrupting the continuity of the memory should break it, why wasn’t this working? Dammit, if only Unikitty was in the room and not trapped outside the wall. He then tried the first thing he could think of that would be something that would never have remotely happened in any memory, something that would break continuity, snap them both out of it.  
  
  
He ran in close, not caring if he was shot or not. He grabbed Lucy...well…Bad Cop, and kissed them.  
  
The memory shattered around them, and both of them fell down into blackness, the bright shards of the memory falling like glass.  
  
  
“Emmet!” She gasped, holding hands with him. “I…I was Danny?” She got her bearings, and realized she was herself again. They were still falling though.    
  
“Unikitty told me you got sucked into his memories. I guess we both are now?” He grimaced.  
  
“This is bad; he’s lost all sense of timeframe. His feelings of being empty and alone, for all he knows he is back at Taco Tuesday!” She swallowed. She was shaking; she could still feel what it was like. She could feel everything he had felt in those memories. Her mind was swimming.  “It was so strong I got sucked in when I tried to break through to him before. Dammit I thought I was better trained then this to get trapped in someone else’s memories!” She growled to herself.  
  
“You’re still way better at all this then I am,” Emmet chuckled, trying to orient himself more gracefully as they fell.  
  
“It’s not enough to break me outta it, we have to make Danny come back to reality too.”  
  
“Danny!!! Snap outta it!!” Emmet yelled, with hands to his mouth.  
  
“Emmet, that isn’t going to – OOMPH!”  
  
The wind was knocked out of both of them as the ground came up suddenly.  
  
The room, they were back in the room! Lucy couldn’t believe it. She could see Danny on the bed, curled in a ball and facing away from them. However, things had changed since they last saw it. The lights were all out save for one flickering lightbulb. The whole room seemed to undulate and shift uneasily. It was like a fever dream. It dripped with hopelessness and despair.    
  
  
“Danny!” Emmet ran up to him.  
  
Lucy gasped, “Emmet no, not like that!”  
  
  
Emmet had already put a hand on him, intending to shake him out of it. But when he rolled him over, where his face should have been was a nightmarish doodle.  
  
Emmet stumbled backwards in shock and fear, right into Lucy’s arms.  
  
But Emmet was a lot bigger then her, so they completely fell over, and this time the floor _swallowed_ them up.  
  
They both felt their stomach’s turn as they realized where they were when they opened their eyes.  
  
  
This was the top of Octan tower, Lord Business’s office.

...

...

...

 

“A…5!”

 

“Argg me battleship!”

 

Daniel fidgeted looking at the door to the courtyard. They all sat at a rainbow concrete picnic table under the shade of a rather eccentric looking tree. Benny clapped excitedly from where he was seated next to him.  
  
“Hey Daniel we got him!” Benny laughed.  
  
“Aye ye both did, but if this was a real battlefield you can bet your britches you’d be sunk!” Metalbeard grumbled and plucked his last battleship from the little toy playing field. “It was two on one anyway.”  
  
“It’s only a two player game, someone had to team up with someone.” Benny said. He saw Daniel was still not responding. He softened his tone, “Hey, I’m sure they are fine, sometimes these things take a while.”  
  
“We already played through two rounds of Candyland and now a long round of Battleship…how much longer are they gonna be?” Good Cop turned his head back anxiously.

“Your partner be in good hands matey, don’t fret. Funny to think of likes of ye being so worried. I know ye are tougher than that.” The old sea captain said as he packed up the board game.  
  
“Thanks Captain,” Good Cop nodded, straightening up and butting shoulders with Benny. He was wishing for proximity to someone different right then but being around friends was sure better than being alone. He grabbed Benny’s hand all the same, squeezing it tight as he felt small and lost.  
  
“Heyyy buck up Daniel, we still got…Spaceships and Wormholes!” Benny whipped out another board game.  
  
“Is that like the space equivalent of Ships and Whirlpools?” Metalbeard leaned his head on his metallic hand.

Good Cop smiled a bit, “You guys…you sure came prepared. Thanks for distractin’ me. I’ll still be uneasy and worried no matter what though. I just hope the Princess finds somethin’ in there that can help her put us back together again.”  
  
Metalbeard nodded, “She’s a smart lass she will, I’m sure of it.”  
  
“I guess I never realized how connected you two were. I mean, this morning, you two seemed to be in some kind of psychic synchronized harmony. Guess it comes with being twins?” Benny thought for a moment, “Ahh well, you guys are even closer then twins really…”  
  
“Even normal twins have a special connection. Imagine sharin’ a body with your twin. I always find it strange how shocked everyone is by how close we are…” Daniel opened the new board game, giving a look to Benny.  
  
“I think it is cause you two are so different. I’m pretty close to my sisters, but I certainly wouldn’t want to spend every minute of every day with them,” Benny chuckled. “Metalbeard, you got any family still around?”  
  
“Aye, me mum and dad. Not a finer swordswoman and sailor in all the seas. She spends a lot of her time as a teacher now though, bein’ she is gettin’ on in years. Me father too, though he also runs a business at the port.” He smiled warmly then, “Also I consider the Princess like family. People would be shocked me thinks, as we seem like total opposites at first glace.”  
  
“Same with me and Danny,” Daniel nodded, “So you can understand then? People think we just get on each other’s nerves, but…we work together. We _like_ each other’s differences. We… need each other.” He sighed brushing his fingers over the game’s board pieces.  
  
The captain put out his larger hand to Daniel’s. While not flesh and bone, the cool metal was the warmest you could ever imagine in how consoling his touch could be, “Aye laddy it’s alright, I understand ye.”

Benny stared at the board game, wondering how best to comfort Daniel. He looked out at the lovely Cloud Cuckoo Land courtyard as everyone paused and was awkwardly silent. There were a lot of flowers in bloom. They had really rebuilt the land quickly. Master Builders sure were efficient when they worked together. “Hey, do you like flower crowns?” Benny tried.  
  
Daniel looked up quizzically.  
  
“You know, flower crowns. Weaving flowers together. My lil’ sis got really good at it and taught me.”            
  
“Oh! Ahh yea I never really learned properly, tired it once or twice…”  
  
“Come’on I’ll teach ya and you then can teach your bro, if he can even stand cute colorful flowers?” Benny joked as he got up.  
  
Daniel seemed to like this plan. He laughed, following. “You’d be surprised by a lotta things about Danny.”  
  
“How about you Metalbeard?” Benny asked, looking up as they all sat under a tree at the tall cyborg captain.  
  
“Me hands be not be as dexterous and delicate as yours, but I sure can try.” He sat down with them, joints whirring softly with the action.  
  
  
Benny started gathering appropriate length flowers and explaining about suppleness of the stems. Daniel glanced back one more time at the door to the courtyard. He hugged his hands around himself and tried to focus on Benny’s talking to drone out the quiet in his mind where his counterpart should be. He hoped Danny was okay, he was getting a sinking feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a really enjoyable chapter to write. I love mental imagery and symbolism. I also love Emmet and Wyldstyle and am happy to write more of them too!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy and Emmet vividly experience a memory Danny is trying to forget - that fateful day in Octan tower. Not to mention a reunion with someone they've not seen in a good while.

“We can’t do it, they’re innocent!” Good Cop’s voice rang out, echoing through the spacious top floor Octan office.  
  
Bad Cop’s aviators were low on his nose. They had been switching so fast they lost track of keeping up with their glasses. Off to the side were the cop’s parents held firm by Business’s robots. They had fallen silent either out of fear or certainty comments would do more harm than good.

Emmet for certain was frozen with fear. He thought at first it was because of how volatile Lord Business looked at that moment, dredging up remembrance of when he’d been tied up by him on Taco Tuesday…but he’d talked Business down while he was in that same power suit. Emmet had faced it before; he wasn’t scared of THAT anymore. So if it wasn’t that then what was it -  
  
“Emmet,” Lucy whispered. Even though they seemed to be invisible as no one had acknowledged their presence, “It’s like when I was trapped in the memories earlier, we’re now both feeling what Danny did…” She swallowed thickly.    
  
She was right. When Good Cop was snagged by Business’s personal bots and strapped to a gurney, they could _feel_ his fear and helplessness. Emmet gasped and stumbled, shocked by the intensity of it. He was not prepared for it at all.  
  
 **< Daniel!  >** A voice echoed in his head.  
  
Emmet whirled around trying to find the source of the voice. There was a jolt of disorientation as Bad Cop snatched control away from his counterpart putting himself out there like a shield.  
  
“Lucy?” Emmet gasped, “Did you hear that?”  
  
“Yea. I did.” She squinted. While this was a memory of a thing that actually happened, it still felt like a nightmare, everything slightly exaggerated, even more terrifying. It was from Danny’s perspective after all…how it felt to him in his memories.  
  
“We can hear their internal dialogue. Danny had told me they could talk to each other. It’s like we are hearing everything from their perspective. Like we’re in their head.”

Emmet nodded in return, “Lucy this…this is before Taco Tuesday, isn’t it?”

  
“This has to be when…when Daniel…” She didn’t get to finish.

  
Business was feverish with power and frustration, and that wasn’t even counting his intimidating power suit. He sneered, “Just as I thought, Good Cop is making you _soft_ Bad Cop. If we’re to finish my plans on Taco Tuesday, he can’t be in the way! I can’t have you being weak when everything is nearly so _perfect_!”  
  
He ripped the aviators from his lead henchman’s face, and put on Good Cop’s glasses. “Now let me see Good Cop!”  
  
“Why can I feel _Daniel’s_ fear if this is Danny’s memories?” Emmet whispered with trepidation.  
  
“I…I don’t know.” She pulled Emmet close, holding his hand.   It was like she was compelled to do it, not just because she wanted to comfort Emmet (and herself). It was like that was what Danny and Daniel were feeling.

 _< Buddy, I’m not going to let you take the punishment this time. This is my fault! >  
_ **< No...I – I can handle this. Just lay low okay. I don’t want you gettin’ hurt… >  
** _< Danny I’m not a  child! I can handle myself! >_

 **< He’s really crazy right now. I don’t know what he’s going to do! Please if anythin’ happened to you I dunno what I’d -  >**  
 _< He’s not going to  kill me, he still wants you right? He’ll keep us alive. >  
_  
“Bad Cop, I thought I told you I wanted to see the other guy! I can tell that is still you.” Business growled impatiently.

 

“Sir - ”  
  
Panic, panic _panic,_ **_p a n i c_.**  
  
  
 _< Buddy you’ve taken enough punishment for me…! Please!  >_  
 **< Daniel you can’t! You just _can’t_! I know you - you won’t be able to take it! And I don’t _want_ you to…I -  > **  
_< I know I hide behind you a lot for things like this..and I know you want me to be happy and protect me from harm and sadness and all that - but I won’t BE happy if you’re just suffering on my account! >_ His voice cracked with emotion. _< We’re a  team…>_

 

“Do you want your parents to be sent to the melting chamber too? I’m being nice just having them be kragled! They are dangerous master builders you know! You don’t seem to understand that!”

 

“I’ll do it sir – I - ”

“No it’s too late for that!”

Forced him, Good Cop _forced_ him out and switched in.  
  
Emmet and Lucy stumbled; the disorientation that caused for the cops hit them like getting kicked in the guts. A mental barrier locked into place with the weight of a thick metal gate falling into place.

  
It was truly Daniel this time as he pleaded to Business, “Sir, I’m sorry. I promise I won’t get in the way! Please, just let us go! You’re acting crazy!”

 

“That’s a good boy.”Business could tell it was Good Cop for real that time.“Robots! Bring in the machine!”

 

 **< DANIEL. DANIEL LET ME OUT.  >** Bad Cop barked. They had never fought like this before. He banged hard on the door to his mind space. The sound was loud and hurt Emmet and Lucy’s ears. But he couldn’t open it. He could hear the locks creaking but Daniel’s want to protect him was strong enough to keep him in for the time being.  
  
< _Buddy no, you can’t protect me from everythin’! I’m the one that got us into this mess. It’s not fair for you to fight all my battles all the time! It’s my turn to protect you. >  
_ **< I don’t mind it! G, please! I can take it, _I can take it_! You can’t, you -  >  
** _< I’m not  weak Danny! Just - give me a little of your strength okay? >  
_ **< I don’t think you’re weak…I… >** _You’re so much stronger then I am. I hide behind you all the time, oh Daniel please don’t do this -_ **  
  
**The robots placed electrodes on their head and powered up the machine. It tingled with electricity.  
  
 **< DANIEL!!  >  
  
‘What’s he going to do oh my god is that an electrocution machine I can’t -’  
**  
“No more mister nice guy!” Business called out as he flipped the switch.

_< Buddy I’ll be okay! Let me han- >_

_ZAPPPppppp!  
  
_  
“Ahhh!” Emmet and Lucy fell to their knees. Their vision whited out. EVERYTHING whited out for a moment. The room undulated and vibrated. Pain, panic, confusion. Can’t move.Ringing in their ears like a bomb had gone off next to them. All sound but the ringing fuzzing out to nothing.

 

_ZZZZAAAAppppppp!!_

White again – longer, more intense.  
  
Everything shaking, like an earthquake.  
  
Emmet and Lucy cried out and covered their ears and closed their eyes. _Make it stop make it stop make it stop -_  
  
There were sounds like electric lines snapping, electricity sparking -  
  
  
No sound.  
  
  
  
Quiet.  
  
  
  
Over the ringing, distant muffled talking -  
  
“Let him go.”  
  
Movement, falling to the floor.  
  
 _Glasses where are my glasses -_  
  
“Oh, son!”  
  
Bad Cop didn’t register his mom calling out for him. He felt at his bare face, blood trickling down his temples. He couldn’t even tell which way was up. He wanted to throw up. The room was spinning. His head felt like it was full of sand.

“On Taco Tuesday, I’m going to kragelize all the realms, so that everyone will stop messing with my _STUFF_!” Business said manically, “You have a mission, a job to finish! You swore yourself into my secret police force; you said you never gave up on a job until it was done. I depend on you, Bad Cop. You’re the law of this land and without order this land will FALL to the chaos of the master builders!”

 

_A job, a job he swore to finish. He never backed out on a mission…never back on his word…never…_

 

“Are you going to be with me, **or are you going to be stuck having a tea party, with your mom and dad**?!”  
  
“Son?” Ma’s voice trembled.  
  
 _Sound fuzzing back in…only slightly clearer. Glasses where are my glasses -_  
  
Danny was handed his aviators. He fumbled them back on and stood up shakily.  
  
Emmet and Lucy held onto each other for support as the room hitched under their feet with Danny’s stumbling.  
  
  
 **< D-Daniel? …G? You o-okay?  >  
  
**  
No answer.

 

 _Why wasn’t he answering?_  
  
“What did you - ” Danny groaned, robots caught him.  
  
“Bad Cop,” A controller was nudged into his hand. Business’s words filled his ears with a hypnotic calmness, filling in the void of the quietness now in his mind. Distracting him, grounding him to something he knew - “What do you know about master builders?”  
  
“They…they’re a danger to public safety…” Danny replied reflexively. “Chaotic, unpredictable - ”  
  
“That’s right. And what important job did I employ you to do?”  
  
“C…capture them. Track them. Stop them from destabilizing the realms…”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Emmet leaned on Lucy more. He didn’t know if he was experiencing vertigo or nausea or both at once. Danny’s disorientation was like nothing he’d ever felt.

  
“That’s right. I need you. Without you I’d never been able to detain all those master builders…stop them from _changing everything_ all the time…!”

_So quiet.  
  
  
_ Danny hazily looked over the control in his hand.  
  
 _  
_“Son?” Pa tried this time. _  
  
  
Master builders, public enemy number one.  
Can’t be trusted.  
All master builders.  
  
 **All of them.**  
  
Lied.  
They lied to you.  
They had been master builders all along._

 _  
_“ _Finish the job_.” Business hissed. _  
  
  
_“I’m sorry dad. I-I …I have a job to do.”Bad Cop said.

 

Lucy closed her eyes when she couldn’t watch further. She didn’t want to see any more, it was horrible. It didn’t stop her from hearing and feeling what was going on though. “Dammit we need to find a way out of here!” She screeched.  
  
Emmet knew Lucy for being so strong. To see her losing it was really unnerving for him. He held her close trying to comfort her while at the same time trying to shut out the nightmare around him. He felt utterly useless. He had no idea how to get them out of this mess. “Luce, I’m the newbie remember!? I’ll do anything you suggest, cause I got no idea! I’m sorry…”  
  
There was suddenly a terrible creaking, like an old wooden boat giving way. Lucy opened her eyes. The dark floor of the Octan office cracked under her feet. The cracks glowed with a bright, rainbow light.  
  
“A break in the memory!” She detached herself from Emmet and kneeled down. Behind them a troop of robots was hauling away the cop’s parents to the think tank, the other dragging an almost unconscious Bad Cop. “Danny must have lost consciousness soon after this. Now’s our chance to try and escape before we fall into the next one!”  
  
The cracks were not ordinary though – instead of leading to the blackness of another traumatic memory, it was like _someone else_ breaking through.  
  
“Come’on!” She grabbed Emmet’s hand. He held onto her for dear life. _  
  
_Lucy waved her hand like she would doing a build in real life, and the floor’s black tiling cracked upwards as if gravity reversed itself. Beneath it more and more bright light was revealed. Lucy tried to levitate them with parts of the floor as a footing, but the memory was evaporating around them.  
  
Emmet tried to help pull in matter to aid her but it whipped out of his grasp.  
  
“Oh no it’s too fast!” Lucy gasped.  
  
“We’re falling…again…!” Emmet yelped as they fell through whiteness.  
  
  
“Gotcha!” A cheery voice called out as Lucy and Emmet found themselves falling onto something soft - fuzzy, and _pink_.  
  
…

…

  
“HGGNnnn!” Bad Cop gasped loudly as he woke up in a cold sweat, violently recoiling from the hands he was clasping. _  
  
LET GO LET GO LET GO OF ME DON’T TOUCH ME._  
  
He scrambled backwards like someone just freed from restraints, and eventually stopped a few feet away, still on the floor.  
  
 _Breathe dammit! Breathe - just fucking breathe._  
  
His throat was closing up. He felt at his head, the scars, they…they weren’t fresh. This wasn’t _then_. He fixed his askew aviators as he frantically looked around. Cloud Cuckoo Land. He was in Cloud Cuckoo Land. A little more oxygen rushed to his head.  
  
Emmet swore the room was spinning. He blinked, eyes darting around. Was this…reality? He was in his clothes he started in. It was crazy how realistic things were in the mind space even though everything was so exaggerated.  
  
Lucy felt over herself, “Woah we’re…we’re back!”  
  
“Indeed you are.” A ghostly voice echoed. There next to Unikitty floated the form of Vitruvius.  
  
“With some help from Vitruvius I was able to break Danny’s barriers and I came in for ya.” Unikitty beamed, tail swishing with pride. “You were not an easy lock to pick! I’m sorry I had to do that…you will have disorientation from it. Just breathe and drink something.” She flicked her hand and seemed to conjure up a glass of water…err…kool aid, from thin air.  
  
Lucy blushed with shame and anger. To have to be saved by her non-corporal mentor from a memory trap. So _embarrassing_. However, she was too winded through from the intensity of the experience to gripe about it right then.

  
Bad Cop’s mind was reeling. Between the vivid reliving of the traumatic events to his whole mind’s home being outright violated, yes, he was fucking disoriented. “Shit,” He gasped, taking one look at the drink Unikitty was offering when he was hit with a wave of nausea. He stumbled away on hands and knees and was just able to make it to a little trash bin by one of the lab’s desks.  
  
Emmet winced. Wyldstyle had a similar expression as she got up.  
  
“ **Don’t come near me**!” Danny barked as they all inched closer to see if they could help. “Just, darn it… _fuck_ …” He shoved the bin away and leaned against the side of the desk. He was shaking. It was obvious he wanted some space.  
  
Everyone paused, giving Danny a much needed respite of silence. Unikitty eventually spoke up, “I’m so sorry Danny, I didn’t mean for this to happen. It just…happened. We could not have anticipated it.” Unikitty pouted. “You got too emotional and memories came to the surface and -”

“For someone who had never done this before and with the state you are in, I think you did alright me boy.” Vitruvius chuckled softly. His form was hunched over though, like he was winded. Within the next few moments he slouched and vanished.  
  
“Oh!” Lucy gasped.  
  
“He’s alright, he just used a lot of mental energy to help me save you guys.” Unikitty reassured.  
  
Danny wasn’t paying much attention to their talk. He was just trying to make the room stop spinning and not to throw up again.  
  
“Danny,” Lucy came over squatted next to him carefully, face full of compassion. “Danny…I’m sorry…” And it wasn’t for what happened with the mind excursion.  
  
Bad Cop seemed to understand. He locked eyes with her briefly from behind his aviators. The eye contact helped the spinning lessen. Emmet was right behind her, face big and dopey and….gosh how did that dork talk down the likes of Lord Business.  
  
He knew that they had _seen things_. Seen memories that were intensely private. More than seen. _Felt_. Sure he had briefly told Lucy about of his trauma with Daniel, confided things they had never told anyone else. To be told it was a lot different than experiencing it.  
  
Vulnerable, he _hated_ feeling this _vulnerable_ to other people.

But still, he gave her a weak nod. “Where’s Daniel?” He was catching his breath now. He tried to get up using the desk as support. All he wanted was to see his counterpart, make sure he was okay. He KNEW he was okay but at the same time he has this anxiety in his chest he couldn’t stuff down.

Emmet went to help Bad Cop up and Lucy stopped him.  
  
Danny eventually made it to his feet, and took the offered glass of indeterminate sugary liquid from the Princess. He looked at it with an unsure scowl, and then put it down on the desk like pretending he never saw it.  
  
“Daniel should be right in the courtyard.” The Princess replied.  
  
  
The door swung open after she finished talking.  
  
  
“Daniel, we should wait till they come out - !” You could hear Benny’s voice.  
  
“They’re awake!” Good Cop called back as he ran into the room.

“Daniel!” Bad Cop gasped happily as a flower-crown wearing Good Cop ran towards him.  
  
“Buddy!” Daniel _plowed_ into him.  
  
  
The others watched as Danny swung him around to absorb the impact of the jump hug. They nuzzled into each other, hugging tight and mumbling muffled jibberish into each other’s shoulders. Daniel took the flower crown off his head and placed it on Danny. Funny as it was to see Bad Cop in a brightly colored flower crown, at that moment it didn’t make him flinch with nary a hint of gruff disapproval.   He was too preoccupied with happiness at being reunited with his counterpart after his ordeal.  
  
Good Cop was about to comment on how he made it for him but he saw his brother was crying. His eyes were misty too but – Danny _crying_. He never cried. “Buddy, you’re crying…” He knew it, his instincts were right, something HAD happened. Something bad.  
  
“Hey,” He cooed and let Danny settle his head onto the crook of his neck. He slouched a bit to make it easier as they were the same height. He pet his hair and held him close, whispering, “Buddy, shhh shhh it’s okay…what happened? Talk to me…tell me what happened…”  
  
Unikitty shuffled on her paws and hooves. She was unsure if she should explain what happened or leave and let the boys talk. Benny and Metalbeard were peeking into the doorway also unsure if they should even come in.  
  
Wyldstyle felt herself choking up. She drew close to her taller boyfriend. She remembered the brother’s reunion at the mall. But this time, with them just fresh from their experience in the mind excursion, she could feel the compassion in her chest this time. How much those two loved each other, and how much they depended on one another…how much it must hurt to be separated as they were.  
  
Emmet sniffled and forced a smile, “We hit a few…bumps. But we made it back in one piece.”  
  
“Bumps?” Daniel asked, still comforting his counterpart. It was so unnerving to see Danny so distraught.  
  
“Taco Tuesday.” Danny whispered, “Like I was there, all over again…”  
  
Good Cop’s face fell, and drew up serious.  
  
Danny gripped onto him tighter, “Daniel, I **don’t** think you’re weak …I - ”  
  
“Oh Buddy……shhh shhhhh…I k-know you don’t think t-that,” Good Cop swallowed thickly, tears welling up, “You’re always protectin’ me, you’re the best b-brother in the world…I’m so sorry I was so stubborn - ”  
  
“No I’M sorry…”

“Buddy…” Daniel broke into sobs.  
  
“I c-couldn’t protect you,” Danny sobbed back.  
  
They were intelligible sobbing and hugging at that point, leaving the others in the room feeling very intrusive.

“You’re just so darn optimistic,” Danny chuckled eventually.

Daniel laughed in return, still fighting away tears. He pulled back enough to wipe some of his counterpart’s tears away.  
  
  
Emmet coughed, like trying to draw attention to the fact they were there, “Did you fella’s, want some time alone?”  
  
  
The cops paused - they had known the others were there but also had forgotten for a minute.  
  
“Yea.” Danny replied, “Just …a minute or two…”  
  
“Just come out when you are ready. I don’t know if you are up for any more tests today but we at least should brief you on what is to come.” Unikitty said with a weak smile.

  
They all scampered out, taking Metalbeard and Benny with them.  
  
  
“Geezus,” Lucy wiped a hand on her face as they all sat in the courtyard to kill some time and cool down.  
  
“So did you learn anything that could be used to help them?” Benny asked, super curious.  
  
“Yea! Very useful in fact!” Unikitty began explaining what happened, but had to hand it over to Lucy and Emmet when it got to the part when she was stuck outside Danny’s ‘house’.

 

…

 

“Keepin’ ye occupied with board games,” Bad Cop chuckled, as they went over telling one another what happened. “You love board games.”  
  
“Wasn’t the same without _you_.” Good Cop sighed, stroking and scratching Danny’s hair soothingly.  
  
They had taken a seat on a cushy pink couch along the edge of the lab’s wall. Everywhere in Cloud Cuckoo Land was very well furnished, even the labs. Their sitting turned to leaning turned to curled up laying down together. Anything to soothe their nerves and especially to make Danny feel safe and calm.  
  
“I’m so tired…” Danny groaned. Both of them were speaking fairly soft, like trying to whisper close as possible to a private conversation they were used to.  
  
“Me too, but you seem a lot more tired.”

“Well considerin’ what I just went through,” he grunted back.

“But it was worth it, you said Unikitty knew what to do now! We’ll be back how we were born in no time I bet.”

“She said she had a better idea what to do at least, yea.” Danny murmured, "Let's hope yer right."  
  
They paused for a moment just listening and feeling the other’s breathing and heartbeat.  
  
Their stomachs suddenly growled in unison.

“Sounds like it’s lunchtime,” Daniel chuckled.

“That sounds like a plan to me. Anywhere but in here, is good plan.”  
  
Danny uncurled himself from Daniels arms and they sat up. They gave one last intimate exchange of touch while they had the privacy. A nuzzle, a stroke through the hair, a caressing of fingers clasped together. They needed it more than ever after what Danny experienced. It may have been Bad Cop who went through the most trauma, but Good Cop needed this too. They just needed each other, like this in private, for just a moment. Being physically separate meant every word shared or comforting feeling that was once private in their head was out in the open for all to see.

 

“So you’re okay to go out there?” Daniel asked.  

“Yea, now I am.” Danny sighed into his counterpart’s neck, then drew away and stood up. He fixed his shirt and hair and straightened his back, signaling he was sufficiently ready to face the world.

Good Cop snagged his hand as he walked with him, “I’m never leaving you again, ye hear?” He smiled with that usual optimism.

Bad Cop grinned back, that confident face returning, “Never lettin’ ye outta me sight.”

…

  
They walked out to the courtyard, intending to perhaps collect Emmet and Lucy for lunch. Danny wanted to discuss what happened with them. Apologize if he could too. So much to talk about…  
  
However there was a bit of a chatty altercation going on as the cops walked in. When they were noticed, everyone paused and parted enough to reveal an extra party who had been behind the circle of master builders -  
  
  
It was Business.  
  
  
The former President's jaw fell open like he’d seen just about the most improbable thing imaginable.

The cop’s faces gawked like they saw just about the last person they wanted to see.

“Holy moley,” all five foot three inches of the former president gasped, “ _Alchemy accident_! You all weren’t kidding…!”

Daniel tensed, throat going dry. He was not ready for this, _at all_. Especially knowing Danny just experienced such a terrible remembering of the electrocution. He drew close to Danny, who was already getting in front of him by reflex. His heart rate jumped all over again, but he kept that hard faced expression he was so good at.  
  
 _Well this is awkward,_ Unikitty thought.  
  
The cops had not talked to their old boss in nearly a month. They generally made every effort to _not_ to talk to him – and only did so when forced to for public affairs in rebuild efforts or dealing with Duplos. It was a gauche, anxiety inducing affair they were not ready to deal with just yet. Business attempted a few times to apologize for ‘completely losing it’ and that ‘that hurting people wasn’t what he really wanted’, etc etc...it wasn’t sitting right with the cops. Not yet.  
  
Business came towards Danny and Daniel, drawn in out of pure, unadulterated curiosity and forgetting how uncomfortable he made them. His eyes darted between the two, not believing what he was seeing.  
  
“Hey, we’re not some sideshow for ye to gawk at!” Danny snapped, uneasiness bubbling up in him with each step Business took closer.  

Business stopped and looked insulted, “Guys! Hey I – I’m just worried, and curious, of course! You gotta admit this is – this is really something - ”  
  
“Yea, somethin’ real amusin’. Been all fun and laughs, this has.” Danny huffed.  
  
Daniel pawed at his arm, like trying to encourage him to calm down.  
  
The former president sighed, trying to rework how his tone and or approach. He straightened his tie idly in a fidgeting gesture and then stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I’m sorry guys, I didn’t mean it like that – I just – both of ya! At once! I am floored at such a sight!” He drew closer still and managed to exchange a quick glance with Daniel, who was almost totally hiding behind Danny.

He felt terrible to make Danny be his shield right now after what he had just experienced but…he simply couldn’t face Business directly. It made him dizzy.  
  
Bad Cop twisted his mouth a bit, wondering how he could get out of this conversation. "Why are ye even here?" He grumbled.    
  
Business blinked, "I was here reconfiguring some matter of course, helping rebuild things, what else would I be doing?" He gestured with a hand and groaned in a tired fashion, "I have a lot of mess to clean up..."  
  
"Yea, he came by to check for orders on where to go next and ran into all of us and started asking questions as to why we were all gathered here like this, why I've not been available for a week...we _had_ to explain about the alchemy accident." Unikitty said.  
  
"Aye, sorry lads." Metalbeard groaned, like he was not happy they had to explain it to Business.  
  
Business felt ganged up on as usual. He knew he deserved it but at the same time he was increasingly antsy about how it seemed no matter how much he tried to fix things, no one seemed to like him any better. He turned to face the cops again, face and body defusing further, "I didn't mean to gawk, it's just, I've known you guys for so long and to see you both like this, it's unreal. Is there anything I could...do to help?" He looked between all the master builders.  
  
Unikitty wavered but then said, "Well, the more master builders we have during the final transfer, the better really."  
  
The cops looked to her like someone betrayed.  
  
"Danny, don't look at me like that,” Unikitty bit her lip, “I’m just trying to think of what would work best.”  
  
Business looked like a kicked puppy as he said, “Yea, if I can help…why not?”  
  
  
“You…you don’t have the right to give us that look!” Bad Cop barked at his former boss, the memories still raw in his mind. “Not after what ye did to Daniel!”  
  
  
Business froze, then sighed, slumping and playing with the little interlocking bricks in his pocket absentmindedly, “Look, I…I lost it okay. I’m not saying that excuses my actions because it damn well doesn’t, but I wasn’t in right mind. I was only trying to knock him out too, I…the machine I designed wasn’t meant to ‘kill’ him. I don’t think that’s even possible based on your biological makeup,” Business gestured with his free hand like he was rambling, “I- I just…”  
  
The cops had heard it all before, in a previous talk. The attempted apologies. The masked ego. It was hard, because they knew how bad their former boss’s OCD was, and it was part of what made him such an organized leader. He really had created more order then there had been across the realms in a long time – and that is why he rose to power so easily. But it just got worse and worse, nothing was ever perfect enough, and everything standing in the way of total perfection had to be micro managed and controlled. Eventually this meant hurting even his own second in command…  
  
“We’ve heard it before sir,” Danny cut him off quietly, and then flinched as he reverts to calling him ‘sir’. It was still so drilled into him. He felt like a damn trained dog…! It just made his aggravation jump further. “And how was I supposed to know, if Daniel was dead or not?!” His eyes welled up a bit hidden by his sunglasses, “Do you really have any idea what you did to me, to us?!”  
  
“Buddy,” Daniel finally spoke up, holding his hand and trying to comfort and reassure him he wasn’t alone.    
  
Business slumped further and all the quietly standing by master builders glanced about uneasily. Lucy and Emmet came forward, “He’s…he’s right. You may think you just ‘knocked Daniel out’ for a few days but Danny thought he was _dead_. They’d never been separated before.” Emmet said, full of compassion like usual, “It’s just not that easy to just move on from…”

He glanced around Danny and caught sight of Daniel back there, “Good Cop – Daniel…I’m **_sorry_**. I was wrong. I wasn’t trying to _kill_ you, I promise. You– you were another obstacle to me then, I wasn’t seeing people anymore just – chaos and making order of the chaos and if I didn’t I –“ He stiffened and grit his teeth, then relaxed like trying not to dredge up whatever it was that triggered his OCD so strongly.  
  
  
“C-Can you _begin_ to forgive me?”  
  
  
Daniel this whole time has been so sick with worry and fear. He always hid behind his brother with things like this, especially when it came to facing Business. And the one time he stood up to him, he was hurt the worst in his whole life – it was really hard to face Business again. He was usually a very forgiving person, and he and Danny could understand their former boss’s disorder. They had seen Business at his worst, and knew he had lost all sense of reality by the end…and they had followed him to that end. They did terrible things too. They were no angels themselves, even if they were deceived and led on. And many were forgiving _them_.  
  
  
Daniel wanted to forgive.  
  
But he still just…was so scared and… _angry_.  
  
He didn’t want to be that way anymore.  
  
But he couldn’t just let off Business that easily.  
  
He _couldn’t_.  
  
  
“D…Daniel - ?”  
  
  
His brother was the one with the temper – but right then Good Cop was no longer giving excuses for his emotions to be stuffed away and hidden. He’d been hurt, his brother had been through hell, and he wasn’t taking a simple ‘I’m sorry’ for an answer. _Not this time._  
  
Everyone was watching with disbelief as Daniel came out from behind his counterpart and strode right up to Business with a not-so-good-cop expression on his face. Business froze like a deer in the headlights, not sure what to do or what to expect with a face like that on Good Cop. He’d never seen him with such an expressi -  
  
  
 **WHAM.**  
  
  
Business was on the ground and gasping with disbelief, hand over a bloody nose. He was so shocked he didn’t even look all that mad as he winced in pain, feeling it was broken.  
  
  
“You…you _punched_ me!”

Daniel loomed over him, heart beating hard in his chest and breathing audibly, hands clenched into fists.  
  
“Daniel…G…” Bad Cop came up and put a hand to his shoulder. He wasn’t trying to stop him, nor did it sound like he was disapproving (very much the opposite) just simply a gesture of ‘ _hey, this isn’t you…you okay?’  
  
_ “That’s…that’s for me, and my brother!” Good Cop breathed.  
  
Not a moment after the tenseness in him eased like letting air out of a balloon. He looked at his left hand, the one he punched Business with…flexing the fingers. It was a little sore but the body he shared with Danny was anything but weak. He just wasn’t used to being the one wielding it that way. Much as it shocked him that he lost it like that it…  
  
…it’d felt damn good. He needed that.  
  
He relaxed against his counterpart who held him at the shoulders, pulling him close and away from Business. Business watched them, still in disbelief to see them both there at once. And _how_ they were interacting. He’d never seen Bad Cop so relaxed around someone. They really seemed like…brothers. He had been told by them multiple occasions how that is what they were but it was always hard to picture being as they are. How could two people who never really interact be ‘brothers’? It just went to show how little Business really understood about his former henchman.  
  
Business groaned and it finally hit him how much that fucking hurt. He tried to get up and was given a hand – Daniel’s hand.  
  
He took the offered help and stood, trying to recollect his dignity. “Okay – okay…I deserved that…”

“Darn right you did.” Danny huffed.  
  
Business managed a weak laugh.  
  
“Think we need to get you to a hospital,” Unikitty spoke up after all of them had been so quiet watching this whole time.  
  
“Good thing I just helped rebuild that,” Business said with sarcasm, “You know I’d never done this much building in my whole damn life, never been good at these kinds of builds, good thing I’m mostly just reconfiguring matter for the other builders…” He muttered to himself, voice getting more nasal by the moment as blood clotted in his nose. “Now if only you guys would let me build some robots to help - ”  
  
“Sorry, robots are off limit for you for the moment, remember?” Emmet patted him on the back.  
  
“Yea yea I know,” The former president groaned. He exchanged a glance with the cops as Unikitty was calling up a transport. He was grateful as Emmet handed him a tissue.  
  
Daniel couldn’t believe it. He could look at him and not feel sick. It felt…real nice. His face, ever so slightly laggy side and all, softened a bit.

  
Business attempted coming over to them, this time they didn’t flinch as much.  
  
“You know I feel like a real asshole for never calling you by your given names…guess I always liked your nick names better.” He admitted, “Daniel, it’s…a nice name.”

“Thanks,” Daniel replied carefully.

Business hesitated then took a deep breath, “Names hold a lot of power you know. They carry a lot of baggage and…” He stopped then continued, “I think…in calling you by your nick names I thought I was taking you both down a notch. Also making things less personal, more…business-oriented.”

 

He took the tissue away from his face and his nose was already getting a bit purple. “As a…showing of trust I want to tell you guys… _my_ given name. It’s...it's Sirius.”

 

Danny and Daniel’s eyes both widened. In all their years working for him, they’d never once been given his actual first name. Everyone always had to call him ‘sir’. _Always_. Maybe in not giving out another alternative it forced people into that even more, that is what the cops always thought.  
  
“Wait,” Good Cop squinted, “Sirius… _Sirius Business_?”  
  
Bad Cop just got it too, soon as his counterpart said it. He frowned with a disbelieving, but amused, expression.

“Serious business right from birth, I always did say I was born for this job,” He chuckled, then winced and stopped as oh god his nose was really starting to sting.

“Come’on” Unikitty grabbed Business by the arm, “Let’s get you going before that sets crooked!”  
  
“Oh come now Princess, a crooked nose gives character!” Metalbeard grinned, laughing as he walked off with her and Business to escort him to the transport.  
  
“To a pirate maybe!” Business yelped.  
  
  
He turned his head for just a moment and gave a goodbye glance to the cops, then was gone.  
  
  
“Well, that was awkward.” Benny bit his lip and touched down after floating about the whole time.  
  
“No kidding,” Lucy sighed, “I’m really sorry about that guys…” She said with compassion.

“No! No it’s ok,” Daniel gripped his brother’s hand and came over to her.  
  
“Yea, it…it’s gettin’ easier.” Danny said huskily, “Each time, a little easier…” After what he just went through, to see his brother face his fear like that was really rewarding. Not to mention watching Business get punched like that, highly satisfying.  
  
“Emmet,” Daniel spoke up, “We were going to ask you guys if you wanted to - to join us for lunch.” His look was telling.  
  
“That sounds like a plan.” Lucy said with a deep breath, “Let’s get outta here.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cops, Lucy and Emmet talk over lunch, connecting after their shared experience. Well, shared by everyone but Good Cop...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very dialogue heavy chapter. :) I hope you enjoy all the Emmet-Lucy-Good Cop-Bad Cop interaction. Sorry for my slow on getting this out, it got really long too.

“You really made this?” Danny said with admiration as he was turning over the tightly woven flower crown in his hands. It was made with purple and white flowers of the Cloud Cuckoo Land variety.  
  
“Metalbeard and Benny taught me.”  
  
“You must be a fast learner,” Emmet widened his eyes.  
  
“They were good teachers,” Good cop shrugged humbly.  
  
Bad Cop had left the intricate flower crown in the Cloud Cuckoo Land lab – it had been put aside during his chat alone with his counterpart.  Before they all left for the surface he’d done a double take and ran back for it, not wanting to leave the gift behind.

Lucy, Emmet, and the cops were seated in a corner booth of a restaurant on the west side of Bricksburg.  Some mom and pop diner that Emmet insisted was _spectacular_ , even if the décor didn’t really back up his claims. However, the cops _were_ taught better than to judge by appearances. Just because the wallpaper looked like a time capsule to the 1970’s and there were badly mounted animal heads on the wall staring at them with bewilderment, didn’t mean the _food_ was bad.  
  
Benny had dropped them off, narrowly fitting into the small parking lot that was not really designed for spaceships. He insisted they all talk alone - even though everyone invited him to join in on the lunch. He understood they needed this time, just the four of them. He gave Wyldstyle and Emmet a hug, and then zoomed off for home.  
  
Everyone looked a bit jittery and were doing their best to settle down after the morning’s events. It was like a shaky calm after a storm. There were lots of pieces to pick up but everyone seemed content to sit in the rubble and ignore it until someone was forced to acknowledge by tripping over it.

“It’s well made,” Emmet said with admiration like he might be interested to learn such a skill himself.  
  
Wyldstyle chuckled looking at Bad Cop, “And seeing _**you**_ wear a flower crown?  Definitely something I’d never have imagined I’d see in my lifetime.”

Danny grunted sarcastically, “I’m just full’a surprises, aren’t I.”

Daniel bumped his shoulder, “He’s a big, scowling grump but he’s not as mean as he looks.”

Bad Cop bristled like his brother was spilling secrets. He placed the flower crown on the table awkwardly.  He had this duality about him where he enjoyed his tough outward appearance and untouchable air, but didn’t want people to be downright _afraid_ and hate him.  Similar to how Daniel had a kind and open demeanor, but hated to be thought of as childish, or incapable of being serious.  People might think they were very black and white looking them first glance, but that certainly was not the case.

Lucy plucked up the crown and put it on, displaying and posing for overdramatic comedic effect.  “Is purple my color?”

Good Cop liked her playfulness and sass, “Beautiful!”

“Looks nice.  I think it’d look better on Emmet though.” Bad Cop said matter of factly.

Lucy grinned at him like that was a true statement. She put the adornment on Emmet, who gasped like he was just graciously crowned king.

“I feel so pretty.” He said while adjusting it.  
  
Ah yes silliness, this was what they all needed. Good cop laughed at Emmet while Bad Cop thought how nice this all was. His posture was relaxed – his anxieties not being set off much by the social situation with Emmet and Lucy. Normally Daniel would be handling most of such a gathering, but even though Danny wasn’t able to hide in his mind space right then, he was thinking how he wouldn’t be even if he had the option. It shocked and pleasantly surprised him.  
  
He didn’t have time to think it over more deeply because a waitress came up to the table. She did a double take at Danny and Daniel – who were sitting side by side on their half of the booth.  They looked non-threatening enough in street clothes.  But her pause and gawking were not her recognizing them in their infamy, “Wow are you guys twins?  You look exactly alike!”  
  
The cops breathed a sigh of relief.  While their reputation was getting better, their past mistakes were a point of anxiety for them anytime they were casually in public. It was like a shadow following them around and they never knew when it would jump up and bite them in the back.   
  
“Yes, we’re twins.” Bad Cop replied in a tone of ‘thank you captain obvious’.  
  
Good Cop confirmed with a light chuckle, “Identical twins!”  
  
“Well I’ll be,” The waitress gasped, “Don’t see that every day.  You both work out too?” She was thinking how their build was exactly the same, and that they looked damn fine too.  
  
Danny gave a sideways expression and replied simply, “Ahh yea, somethin’ like that.”  
  
“Tell me what gym you go to I need to get my hubby lookin’ like that!” She joked, getting out her notepad and un-clicking her pen. “Alright, what can I getcha to start dears?”  
  
There was a brief pause then Lucy spoke up first. “Gin and tonic please,”  
The waitress looked to Emmet who thought a moment, “Cola if you got it.”  
“Coffee, thanks,” Danny said. “And a water.”  
“Chocolate milk and water please,” Daniel said.

“Great, I’ll be back in a jiffy with your drinks!”  
  
“She’s a character,” Lucy smirked after she walked away.  
“Mmmhumm,” Emmet agreed.  
Danny leaned into his counterpart and sighed. Daniel said like speaking for both of them, “Yea she is a sweetheart.”  
Lucy studied them settling in. “You two must be exhausted.”  
“Yea,” Danny grunted, fixing his sunglasses but not moving from his leaning post.  
“The lack of sleep is piling up,” Daniel confirmed sadly.  
  
Lucy fidgeted her hands together under the table, thinking to when she was trapped inside Danny’s memories. She had experienced how tired, sad and lost Bad Cop was without his counterpart. She thought how he felt back then must be similar to how they both felt now. Least they had each other in some form currently…  
  
“I felt it - your exhaustion, in the mind space excursion.” Lucy looked at Bad Cop with sympathy, but her face was also taught. “When you were alone.”  
  
The cops perked their attentions, sitting upright, like they had tripped over something. Better sooner than later to bring it up. “I explained what happened to Daniel of course,” Bad Cop replied soberly, “So you not only got _trapped_ in my memories, you _felt_ _everything_ too? I’d suspected but I wasn’t sure.”  
  
Emmet stopped idly playing with the tray of sugar packets and put a consoling hand to Lucy. She accepted it before continuing, “It’s like I was _literally_ _you_ , in those memories. In your body playing out the movements, hearing your train of thought. I felt your emptiness, your fatigue, your disorientation...”  
  
“I didn’t get trapped in _those_ memories like Lucy did, but I did feel things during the Octan Tower memory.” Emmet said, “I avoided being pulled in as she had touched you directly in your mind space when things started to break down.”  
  
Danny slouched with a sorry expression. All those awful memories she had to experience, his privacy was completely shattered…he wrung a hand across his face with trepidation. He just wanted to forget those days and put them behind him. But it wasn’t that easy, especially with this whole separation accident putting a rift between him and his counterpart _again_.  
  
Good Cop meanwhile squeezed his counterpart’s hand under the table in an attempt at comforting them both. He might have saved him from being nerve damaged and knocked out, but then Bad Cop had been left alone all those days. In the end, he’d failed Danny all the same. They _both_ felt like they had failed each other.  
  
He stared at Lucy with compassion...and jealousy. “That is actually kind of ironic, that you experienced those things,” Daniel said despondently with a distant tone, “Because for me, it still remains 3 days missing from my memory, the only time we weren’t together.”  
  
“Ah yea, I’d not thought of it that way,” Lucy replied quickly, glancing to the side. She’d been there aware in Danny’s body during times not even his own _counterpart_ could remember. She had experienced things Daniel had not. She did not quite know how to respond to such a revelation. Those two had lived together their whole lives, and yet those few experiences were ones only Danny, and now her, had shared.  
  
“What…did it feel like?” Daniel asked, mind reeling with curiosity at the whole mind excursion thing. He leaned forward onto the table.  
  
“Being in the memories or being in Danny’s mindscape in general?” Lucy blinked.  
  
“The memories mostly. Danny had told me about what the mindscape looked like, and how it all felt so familiar. I bet I have a similar house in my own mind, where I go when Danny is in control. So funny, you go there your whole life and never think this place in yer mind can have such a _concrete_ appearance. Though mine has a more colorful interior I bet!” Daniel had to chuckle at that. He was trying to lighten the mood a bit - he elbow nudged his brother while he was at it.  
  
“I’m sure,” Danny replied, smirking. But he had seen that poignant look in his brother’s eyes.  
  
Lucy did wonder what Good Cop’s mindscape must look like right then. She thought about the huge hole in their mindscape in their original body, Good Cop’s half unceremoniously ripped out and thrown into a new body. Time would tell when they would have to try and move it and fit it back into place…  
  
“And lots of soft pillows!” Daniel added.  
  
“And little colorful twinkly lights?” Danny muttered, butting his shoulder against him.  
  
“Yea!” Good Cop agreed, “Ahh you know I love those things!”  
  
Emmet laughed, “Aww Daniel. I bet it’s nice and cozy. Danny’s place was inviting though. Cushy carpet, lots of family photos, comfortable bed...”  
  
“Yea he likes cozy stuff just as much as me,” Daniel nodded, “Really who doesn’t?”  
  
“Mmmm,” Danny pressed his lips together.  
  
  
Suddenly a glass of water was plunked down in front of him, and everyone else for that matter. The sound broke everyone out of their thoughts.  
  
  
After placing down everyone’s ordered drinks, the waitress took the coffee pot on her tray and re-righted the beige mug in front of Bad Cop so she could fill it. The thick ceramic clinked against the saucer. “Did you want me to get you some fresh crème dear? I think those half ‘n’ halfs over there are getting a little old.” The waitress picked up the little plastic tray of them on the far end of the table with an inauspicious expression.  
  
“Ah, no thanks. I’m fine.” Danny said flatly.  
“He likes his coffee pretty dark,” Daniel stated as he picked up his straw for his chocolate milk.  
“You all ready to order?” She flipped out her notepad from her apron.  
  
They realized they had _not even picked up their menus;_ they were closed in a pile on the end of the table. The waitress had taken this to mean they had finished and put them there. Everyone grabbed them with embarrassment and opened them up.  
  
“Ahh take yer time dears,” She laughed and ran off to give them some time.  
  
“So busy talking we forgot how hungry we were,” Emmet bit his lip and opened a menu.  
  
The cop’s stomachs grumbled, reminding them of their emptiness, in more ways then one.  
  
“I’m so hungry I could eat a sea monster,” Daniel moaned in attempted jest, picking up a menu for them to share. Danny chuffed as he sipped his coffee, like he didn’t doubt he could eat one if given the chance.  
  
Lucy looked over the menu distantly and realized she forgot to answer Good Cop’s question. Or maybe it was that she was avoiding answering it. “Ahh Daniel I didn’t answer you before. The memories, it…well…” She hesitated.  
  
Good Cop’s lips were a fine line, with not a hint of usual upturned corners. He avoided eye contact, then talked over Lucy before she continued. His tone was laced with guilt, “Lucy – I’m not usually a terse person, it’s just…the fact you experienced those things, even if by accident, I wish I could have put myself in your place is all.” He flipped the page on the menu idly, his voice roughening, “ _I_ should have been there…but I wasn’t there…I…”  
  
Danny’s breath hitched as he heard his counterpart’s voice. He gripped a hand to his arm like telling him to stop. He wished so hard right then their dialogue was internal like it should be, but his voice was soft and gravelly as he said, “Daniel, ye need to stop beating yerself up over that…and it’s okay to be mad, but isn’t Lucy’s fault, it’s mine. _I_ messed up during the mind excursion.”  
  
“I-I know I didn’t mean just _that_. It’s - it’s just not fair,” Daniel whispered back hoarsely, tucking his head closer to his counterpart, “Stuff like this s-shouldn’t even’a been possible…It’s not right…”  
  
“I know G, I know…”  
  
Lucy and Emmet felt their hearts hit their stomachs.    
  
  
“ **It’s just not right!** ” Good Cop’s eyes locked with Lucy’s as he suddenly raised his voice and smacked his hands to the table, causing the silverware to jump.  
  
  
Their corner of the restaurant quieted for a moment. Thankfully the place wasn’t very busy, and after some whispering and stares everyone went back to their own business.  
  
Right after his outburst Daniel broke down into sobs, tucking his head into his arms on the table.  
  
It was kind of surreal for Lucy and Emmet to see Bad Cop rubbing his back and looking distraught, yet still calm, as he attempted to comfort his brother. They generally associated Daniel as the one who was good at consoling and keeping his cool better.  
  
Danny leaned in and hugged around his counterpart, sighing deeply and doing his best to transfer good feelings to him. He cursed to himself. Seeing Daniel so distraught put him into protective mode faster than anything.      
  
“I’m sorry Lucy, Emmet, I’m sorry…” Daniel stammered, not raising his head from the safety of his crossed arms, “I’m jes so tired. I don’t wanna be separated…I can’t do this anymore…”  
  
Bad Cop nodded in confirmation, brow furrowed over his sunglasses.

“You guys are good friends…” Daniel added apologetically.  
  
Emmet exchanged glances with Lucy. He put a hand out to Daniel’s arm. “Daniel, you got every right to be mad and frustrated. It’s okay. And, after what we saw and went through today we can understand, at least better than we did before.”  
  
“Yea,” Lucy took a deep breath, “You guys have this – _connection_. You are brothers and we could get _that_ before but, we couldn’t understand how much you _rely_ on one another till the mind excursion. I would have never even considered that mall trip before, knowing what I do now.   Even if you say it helped you understand what Danny went through before Taco Tuesday.”  
  
“We can tell the pressure is getting to you, heck you just punched Business an hour ago.” Emmet chuckled softly.  
  
Lucy had to smirk at that, trying to break the tension.  
  
Bad Cop smirked too, giving another nod. He stated in a grumble, “Ye know we’re under the gun when Daniel starts physically lashing out at people. He isn’t a pushover but… it’s not his usual style.”    
  
Daniel felt like a crybaby, losing it like that, and he couldn’t believe he’d done it in front of Lucy and Emmet. He was as private about emotional outbursts as his brother. He’d hate to admit it but he often kept too much bottled up.  
  
He sat up, and wiped at his face, removing his glasses for a moment. He saw Danny there, so strong and confident, attempting a smile for him to cheer him up and make him feel safe. He knew his brother would say HE was the strong one, even if he always saw Danny as such.  
  
“And you’re really hungry. Come’on, pick something to order, you‘ll feel better after you get some calories in you,” Emmet said, nudging a menu at the cops.  
  
“Yea,” Daniel nodded, placing a hand to the menu, which was grabbed on the other side by Danny. He leaned into him. “Yer right.”  
  
As they were making their decisions Danny muttered to his counterpart, “Ye know, you might do good by some time on the firing range or in the gym. Helps get out that extra frustration.”  
  
“Good idea buddy,” Daniel said back, “I haven’t been this frustrated since my recovery after Taco Tuesday…”  
  
“You’re allowed to get frustrated, and mad. Ye don’t gotta be so stoic and stuff all that down for me all the time.”  
  
“I know,” Daniel pushed at his arm in a mock punch. “Same for you.”  
  
Lucy wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, knowing their chatter was things they normally would have had private in their head, but she couldn’t help but hear it. To have it out in the open must be so difficult for them. She smiled seeing them both calm down at least.

The waitress eventually came back and took their orders. A few more people had come in for the lunch rush so she did not stay as long to chat.  
  
The table was quieter as everyone just settled in for a moment, content with the extent of accessing the damages for now. Lucy watched the cops from over her cel phone, which she pulled out to check her email as displacement activity. Danny’s head was leaned onto Daniel’s, the two had closed their eyes out of physical and emotional exhaustion and dozed off.  
  
“I’m guessing we should let them sleep a little?” Emmet whispered to Lucy. He felt terrible to disturb them. They looked so peaceful.  
  
“Least till the appetizers arrive. I can assure you we’ll make short work of those.” Wyldstyle replied.  
  
“Too bad sleep for them doesn’t do much right now, by what they told us,” Emmet sighed, “I know I’d be devastated if my power naps were not useful.”  
  
“You could win napping events at the Olympics, if such a competition existed,” Lucy teased.  
  
Emmet straightened his back, he looked like a huge teddy bear compared to his smaller girlfriend, “Yea ok, but you’d be my nap copilot.”  
  
“Not my fault you’re so comfortable,” Lucy grumbled like being accused of being sleepy as he was. She was smiling though.  
  
“Aw admit it you love ittttt,” He teased, giving a kiss to her head.  
  
“You’re a dork and I love you, but you are still a dork.”  
  
…

The smell of food woke up the cops like a shot as appetizers arrived. They had ordered quite a few of them, all of them too impatient to wait for the final meals to eat something substantial.  
  
“Aw geeze we dozed off didn’t we?” Daniel laughed nervously, smoothing back his hair.  
  
“Fat lotta good it does us,” Danny groaned, cracking his back and neck to get the cricks out of them. He looked over and fixed Daniel’s hair and shirt collar a bit more, getting the spots he couldn’t see.  
  
“Ahhh Belgian waffle bites!” Good Cop exclaimed, happy the restaurant did breakfast all day. He took a quarter of the fruit and crème covered waffle and put it on his plate, “AND potato pancakes!” He stole the whole cup of applesauce.  
  
Bad Cop meanwhile chuckled gruffly and took his own share of mozzarella sticks and potato pancakes, putting his quarter of the waffle on his counterpart’s plate.  
  
“I’m with Daniel on this one. Belgian waffle, _perfect_.” Lucy smelled it happily. Emmet had already made short work of his share.  
  
“Come’on buddy try a bite? It’s not that sweet. There is no syrup on it.” Daniel had a strawberry and waffle chunk on his fork.  
  
“But I know you like it more…” Danny just wanted to see his brother get as much sugar as possible into him; lord knows he’d feel better.  
  
Daniel foisted the bite at his counterpart, who opened his mouth without another protest.  
  
“Okay yea, that is damn good,” Danny managed to say after swallowing.  
  
Lucy considered a moment, then gestured with her fork casually, “I know you guys can see and hear what the other is doing but not _feel_. What about taste?”  
  
Danny remembered back to when she was asking things like that at the mall book shop and he had answered openly. She must have remembered that. He’d normally feel strange answering those kinds of questions but Lucy and Emmet were not just anybody anymore, especially after the mind excursion. “We can feel the other’s pleasure or displeasure at how things taste,” He replied. “But the actual tasting part - no.”  
  
“When I was at the food court with Daniel, I remember you telling me you guys had different tastes in food but overall like a lot of the same things.” Emmet chimed in.  
  
Good Cop nodded in between demolishing his appetizers, “Yea, and we do like to try each other’s food a lot just to experience it. Especially when tryin’ new things.”  
  
“Eating for two, you guys sure do stay in shape,” Lucy joked.  
  
“Only one stomach – course we feel the fullness of what the other was eatin’ when we switch in. We can’t eat double of everythin’.” Danny confirmed, patting at Daniel’s belly, “This one just takes in more calories is all.”  
  
“I like sweets what can I say? He stress _exercises_ and I stress _eat_ …” Daniel said truthfully, fidgeting another forkful of waffle in his fingers.  
  
“Sounds like a damn perfect arrangement,” Emmet chuckled. He knew he was pretty built himself due to his line of work. He was not a workout-type guy like Danny but he enjoyed physical activity outside in the sun.  
  
“I know you say you are used to it but even after the mind excursion I still can’t imagine being comfortable with seeing my body do things out of my control.” Lucy leaned her head on her hand. In the mind excursion, she had only been him inside his body when he was without Good Cop.  
  
Danny thought a moment, “I am sure there was a time when we were lil’ kids when it was confusing, but we barely remember those days. It’s just all we’ve ever known.”  
  
“Hard as it is for you to imagine - it’s just as hard for us to imagine life alone.” Good Cop added, before finishing up his waffle. “We just have a harmony of doing things.” He bumped shoulders with his counterpart.  
  
“Yea we have a good balanced routine. Least, we _did_ …” Bad Cop slouched. He felt his counterpart’s hand gripping his own. He thought of simple things he missed so much, things they took for granted. Reading a book together, watching TV, one shaving while the other watches and checks for rough spots. The rush of joy he could feel when Daniel got a favorite snack. Switching out taking turns to casually eat lunch and drink their coffee / hot chocolate. Feeling the residue on their tongue of what the other was drinking when they switch. So usual, so mundane. But he missed it…nothing was right…  
  
“Unikitty will figure it out to reverse it, don’t worry. If anyone can do it she can!” Emmet gave a hopefully determined face.  
  
The cops both glanced down but nodded.

“You know, all these questions you askin’ you ought to try and explain to _US_ what it feels like being a master builder or somethin’.” Danny said, gesturing with his own fork

Lucy and Emmet paused, and she replied, “Ahh that isn’t a bad idea. Fair’s fair afterall.”  
  
“I wasn’t a master builder till recently, but I could explain about building in general.” Emmet seemed open to the discussion, though he worried if it would make the cops feel awkward as he knew they were non-builders.  
  
Lucy would hate to say she ‘pitied’ non builders, but it was true she couldn’t understand how people got by without _any_ building power at all. Most people in their world had at least basic builder ability, but a chuck of the population, least 20%, couldn’t build at _all_. And she knew the cops were part of that. Their parents were minor master builder in ability though, which surprised her why the cops couldn’t at all. While the traits were often shared by relatives, it wasn’t 100% consistent.

Lucy took a bite of a mozzarella stick, “I am not sure what I could tell you that you don’t already know. You guys are unique, but there are builders everywhere. Growing up you must have been given the same builder sensitive tests every kid gets, and working for Business you must have researched all kinds of builder techniques to be able to fight us as you did.”  
  
Danny worked his jaw a moment and Daniel gave a look of thought. Danny spoke up first, “Yer right, we know book learning about it of course, but what we were more looking for was _your_ perspectives. As in, what it feels like and means to you and Emmet.”  
  
“Everyone experiences things differently,” Daniel smiled. “And we value your perspective.”  
  
Emmet nudged Lucy, encouraging her to go first.  
  
Lucy considered a moment, and then picked up her napkin rolled utensils. “Building is seeing objects for what they really are - a sum of parts. And knowing what potential they have to become.”  
  
Lucy used her builder power to levitate the bundle. It glowed with a hint of deep blue and pink. The napkin broke apart into shreds and separated from the metal utensils. The utensils balled up and formed a hot mass of metal, like they had been crunched by invisible hands and thrown into a kiln. From there the metal separated out into two main balls, then smaller bits of matter started to ooze out from them.  
  
She muttered, “Alloys like steel are hard to break down to raw materials. They are made of mostly iron and carbon, but can have tons of other elements like titanium, chromium, etc…”  
  
Her tone picked back up again, “But that is the science side of things. Building is really…relaxing to me, when not in a hurry or under the gun. It’s freeing. It’s art. It’s also perfect for a control freak like me haha, you can have total control over little details. It’s why I am good at breaking down mixed things into raw parts. It’s meditative and helps me focus on one thing.”  
  
Emmet stared in awe, “I’m only just learning to be good at controlling alloys that delicately,” He blushed, “As a construction worker I only had to move around pre-formed parts and weld them together – our strength was in lifting heavy weights not shaping matter. I have a lot of raw power now though, thanks to that special mineral deposit I fell into…but it doesn’t mean I have the experience to control it.”  
  
The cops stared in a similar fashion. They had always thought of master builder abilities as equally wondrous and intimidating. “Is it like working with clay?” Daniel leaned his head on a hand.  
  
“Yea, that isn’t a bad way to describe it. But…clay that can be really hard to knead up to get smooth. Every material works a little different too, like different types of clay.” She drew the larger balls of metal closer and started forming one into a shape, perhaps a horse or a deer. “It’s easier to work with a raw material in molten form like this to sculpt something. The usual fast building is taking objects and slapping them together, as that just requires ‘welding things’ to one another. I like doing that to make mechanical things.”        
  
“Like that motorcycle you cobbled together,” Danny recalled. “Sure was a hodgepodge, but it could drive fast _and_ fly so, I can’t fault ye too much.”  
  
Emmet sweated remembering that high speed chase.  
  
“Motorcycle enthusiast like you, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Wyldstyle grinned.  
  
“Hey! What do you think you’re doin?!”  
  
The matter quick cooled as Lucy’s concentration broke and the balls of metal and fabric scraps fell to the table.  
  
The waitress was there, just putting their tray of food on a stand, and not sounding too happy as she exclaimed in protest about the treatment of their utensils, “You going to put those back as they were or you going to pay for a new set?” She put a hand to a hip.

“Ahhh we’ll pay for them Miss, we will!” Emmet sheepishly replied.  
  
“Put it on my tab ma’am,” Danny said.  
  
“Yea, she was demonstrating for us.” Daniel confirmed, smiling nervously.  
  
Lucy hesitated but silently accepted as the waitress scribbled it down on her notepad. “Master Builders, ya’ll all overzealous now that it’s legal to be all out in the open…I appreciate your creativity but use your own matter!” She huffed and put their food down. But after she tried a smile and a sigh, “Look dear it’s ok, I just don’t want to get in trouble.”  
  
“I was prepared to pay for it. Again, sorry. It won’t happen again,” Lucy confirmed.  
  
The waitress seemed satisfied with this. “Enjoy your meal everyone,” and she was gone.  
  
…  
…

“You sure you don’t want to share a cab?” Emmet and Lucy were out on the corner with the cops.  
  
“We’ve not taken the skyway in forever,” Danny said, hands in pockets, “We decided it would be kind of…fun.”    
  
Daniel nodded and patted his stomach, “A more stable way to get back. I’m so full I don’t need to be jostled about in traffic – or a spaceship.”  
  
“With how much you ate I don’t blame you,” Emmet laughed. “What should we tell Unikitty?”  
  
“Not to call. We…we’re done for the day. Much as it doesn’t help, a night of rest would be good before any more tests,” Danny groaned.  
  
“Yea,” Daniel agreed, and adjusted the slightly tattered flower crown where it sat hooked on his arm.  
  
Lucy came up to them both, and put her arms up offering a hug. “See you guys later then…?” She especially looked at Daniel, like she was still seeking forgiveness for intruding in on their private space.  
  
The cops hunched over and gave her an encompassing hug. They’d never felt quite this close to someone before. It was a strange feeling. Not unwelcome, but not one they knew what to do with either.  
  
Emmet joined in on the hug, giving a squeeze to all of them.  
  
"Thanks for lunch," Danny said as they all pulled out of the hug.  Emmet had ended up paying for them all.  
  
"Yea, thankee Emmet," Daniel smiled gratefully.  
  
"Least I can do," Emmet waved a hand like it was nothing.  
  
"And the food _was_ good, I have to admit I was skeptical at first." Danny grunted.  
  
"Yea I know the place doesn't _look_ so fancy, but Emmet loves it..." Lucy rolled her eyes.  
  
They all shared a chuckle of agreement.  
  
“Alright alright, we gotta git,” Danny tried to straighten up.  
  
“Call if you need anything, alright?” Lucy smiled, reaching out to grip both their hands for a moment.  
  
“We will.”  
  
  
…

“Danny, look, there’s the police HQ!” Daniel pointed out the window as the skyway zoomed along its path. It was basically a subway, but in suspended cars that zipped about on routes the subway didn’t go. One of the stops was just a block from their apartment, hence the reasoning for the mode of transport besides it being smooth.  
  
“Hope everythin’ is okay,” Danny muttered, looking over the brick and metal that made of the infrastructure of their lives.  
  
“We’ll get an update call tonight, don’t worry, Fredricks and Henderson are doing just fine organizing the other officers, last we heard.”

“Hummm,” Danny grumbled. That precinct was their lives, their domain. It was like a ship to a pirate. Everything revolved around it. Every little detail and crew member was part of an important, well-worn machine of efficiency.  
  
The building was out of sight soon as it had come into view. Countless buildings breezed by them. It may be a bright afternoon, but the cops remembered how this view looked at night. They both got the same memory. That feeling of freedom as they zipped through the city in their cruiser in flying mode, darting about the buildings with their light blurring past their car windows. Leaning back in their seat and laughing with delight. No one could stop them or challenge them. They were the height of the law.  
  
This was _their_ city.  
  
During the height of their time working for Business, before the abuse and before he went mad with control, they had felt so free. Felt like they could make a difference, because they controlled everything.  Under Business, Bricksburg was _theirs_. They had fallen under the spell of that power. Become blinded by it.  
  
They never wanted to lose sight of the big picture like that again.  
  
  
Bad Cop leaned back in his seat and then against his brother.  
  
Good Cop flopped tiredly and leaned on him in return. He rubbed at his face, then his nose bridge.  
  
“You ok?” Danny asked, hearing his sigh.

“My head hurts.”  
  
“Me too.”

…

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit going to go down soon. :T


End file.
